[Jayce]

I was asked to begin some heavy duty testing with Windows 7 at work. So far, I'm really liking what I see, and it looks like 7 may be an actual upgrade from our current XP Pro lineup of systems.

I created 5 test accounts. Each pulled the default profile properly. I didn't do any extensive testing on it but, my background picture came up along with desktop icons, so I'm only speculating things are good to go.

However, we have to do maintenance on the computers twice during the school year, which includes deleting the existing profiles to cut back on hard drive space, then afterwards defragging.

I had Test 1, and Test 2. I logged in, each pulled the default profile. I then rebooted and logged in as administrator, deleted the Test 1 profile, and rebooted. When I log in as Test 1, it pulled the default profile, but it hit me with some errors saying it was a temporary profile that would be deleted when I logged off. The fix? I had to delete Test 1 as a user, and re-add them. Then I logged in as Test 1 and it pulled the default profile - this time without errors.

My question is simply this - was this because the account was a local account? Based on the fact we're using a domain, is it safe to assume that the domain profiles that get generated won't be faced with this problem?

[Osiris]

Well I havent seen any issues as of yet, run perfect. We will be migrating from NetMeeting to SharedView, but anywas.....

What do you mean pull? Pull as in just creating Domian profiles?

Im a little confuses, Test 1 and 2 are local or domain profiles?

[Mak213]

Well there is a condundrum. You deleted the profile and then tried to log back in right away. So yeah this is a local issue. This will happen on any local machine as it wont have a profile to get when you try to log in which is why you have to remove the user.

It may happen on the domain. I can not tell you for sure as i have not used roaming profiles. But i can tell you for a fact that this is a local account issue.

[Jayce]

I was told on another forum that with Vista, you can't just delete the profiles. I mean, you CAN, but that doesn't take out the registry entries to make Windows fully aware of that change. There's a specific way to delete them, which I don't have the link at the moment though...

This was in regard to Vista, and I was told they imagine 7 is set up the same way. Which - if it is, it makes sense.

I'll be doing more testing in the next 2 weeks... we'll see how this goes!

EDIT - We don't use roaming profiles. We use local profiles. I'm not really sure how roaming profiles would work in our environment, due to the fact in the Library, we want users to have XYZ settings with the Library printer. In the Business lab, they need ABC settings with the Business printer, etc. So we use re-directed my documents folders (to server shares) and run local profiles on the machine, which works beautifully.

I'm really confused on whether or not I'm doing this right. Someone on the 7 forums linked me to an eHow.com link regarding my question.

They said what I should do is rename the "Default" folder to "Default.bak" and then customize my administrator account the way I like.

Then once it's done, create a new local user, set them as administrator, and reboot. Then log in as that new bogus user. Then, copy "administrator" and paste it in the users folder, which then it'll come back as "administrator - COPY"... they told me to just rename it to Default.

I logged in as a new local user, and bam. I pulled the settings. I was like - wow, really? Was it really that easy in 7? Was Vista the same way and nobody just knew or what? I have read dozens and dozens of posts about Vista profiles and this method wasn't listed for any of them, however I'd like to install Vista on my spare rig and try it for kicks and giggles.

[Osiris]

I don't use the local built in Administrator account, I disable it and then create a new local Admin account called Test. which can be deleted after I use that to copy over the Default User profile so everyone domain user that logs into the system their profile are the same. I'm not sure yet if the built in Local Administrator account has the same SID as a new Local Admin account or not yet but I do know that with XP if you delete the default Admin account, profiles can go crazy -local and domain, lots of temp profile errors, etc. Even though the Local Admin account is disabled, XP is still using it somehow. With Win7 I've deleted domain profiles and recreated without any issues, even renaming the account to user.old the accounts still created successfully. Vista is not a good networking OS, maybe for home but not work. Win7 on the other hand is. I'm not sure of all the settings you add or whatever else but on my network it's running smooooooooothly.

[Mak213]

Honestly Jayce, you should get off of Local profiels and get onto roaming.

Simply put are these students in the same lab every day and not logging into any other PC? If not then roaming is the way to go. That way they can just use the network to logon, get their profile that they need and be ready to go. That way before you go and do your 6 month maintainance you dont have 500 or more users with local accoutns on a machine. Instead you have a server with all students.

Then all you have to do is setup GPO to stop them from doing what you dont want them to and viola. Now they can be anywhere in the school, access their data and do what they got to do. They dont have to log on to each machine, have it create a new profile and then get their data on that machine for their work. I mean if a stucdent is 95% done with the class project on Machine A and has never logged into any other machine, what happens if that machine goes down? Do they loss that work? Is it all saved via USB Thumb Drives that they carry around? I mean that is kinda pointless when you could easily use Roaming Profiles and have everything stored on your servers and they dotn have to transfer it from PC to PC.

I mean all it would take is someone with a fair bit of knowledge and they could crack the Admin password, get onto the machine and check all the files and basically cheat. I mean we have a whole topic here on how to crack XP's passwords in case you forget it. So it isnt like the information is not out there for any student to find.

If it was all done via roaming profiles, this would not be a issue as nothing would be stored on the machine.

[Osiris]

Roaming profiles is a pain and have highly possible security issues if not configured correctly. I stay away from them.

[Jayce]

Mak - I interned at a school district prior to me getting my job here. They used roaming profiles. I was just learning at that point so I didn't know too much, but I remember more than once overhearing the network admin and techs talk about ironing out issues regarding them.

The thing is, we have centralized network printers in different locations of the building. Each one different with other settings specifically for that class. There's also a variation in programs from 1 lab, to another, to another. I just don't see how a roaming profile is a viable solution in our situation. The only thing that is common across the board is IE7, Firefox 3.5, and Office 2007. In one lab you might have this batch of programs, in another you have a completely different batch of programs. Each location of computers is customized for exact use of that lab.

When students go to the library, they sit anywhere. When they hit print, they need the default to be the library printer with xyz settings. Period. No questions asked.

When students go to the public computer lab, they sit anywhere. When they hit print, they need the default to be the lab printer. Done.

When students go to the business lab, they need the correct settings in the default profile to smoothly operate the business software. They need certain toolbar arrangements and notifications to be turned off.

When the students are in CADD, they need the correct settings in the default profile in accordance to the CADD software we use. Like business, they need toolbar arrangements in line with teacher recommendations along with various other software settings.

I just don't see how it's possible to create one big fat profile to cover all of these obstacles without it being 2 gig in size. Especially with printers. We use centralized locked print management, which means the students can't go print happy. They need to put in a 4 digit code to print their documents out. This allows librarians, lab aides, teachers, etc to keep a close eye on the paper consumption so students aren't having free reign over printing whatever pictures they want of the new GT500 or of the Maxim magazine cover.

[Mak213]

I am not talking about printing from the library. Lets go this route for a example.

I am in a Computer Lab for Photoshop. We have a project that i am doing. I save my work to that machine. Now i want to go back during study hall, but that machine is already taken. My work was saved locally to that specific machine in which i can not access now. How do i get my work onto the new station that i am working on at this time?

Roaming profiles is not that hard. They are not that large.

What happens when things go to cloud computing and there is no local profiles? What will you do then?

I am looking from the outside in. But simply put, there is going to come a time when Windows is not going to allow you to do what you have been doing.

[Jayce]

Originally Posted by Mak213

I am not talking about printing from the library. Lets go this route for a example.

I am in a Computer Lab for Photoshop. We have a project that i am doing. I save my work to that machine. Now i want to go back during study hall, but that machine is already taken. My work was saved locally to that specific machine in which i can not access now. How do i get my work onto the new station that i am working on at this time?

Roaming profiles is not that hard. They are not that large.

What happens when things go to cloud computing and there is no local profiles? What will you do then?

I am looking from the outside in. But simply put, there is going to come a time when Windows is not going to allow you to do what you have been doing.

And at that time, we will upgrade when necessary. We've stayed with local profiles for the same reason we stayed with XP. The other option just wasn't viable at the time.

We may go to roaming profiles in the future. That's an option. But not a call I can make. I'm not the network administrator.

We re-direct everyone's my documents. Nobody loses their work. As long as they save in their my documents folder (which everybody should make a habit of doing regardless... after all that's why it exists) then their data can be accessed -anywhere- in the district. That's why it's never really been an issue for us.

Cloud computing is a whole other ball game too, by the way. The district I interned at tried that and they had very bad luck with it. Although, it's very young and has a long life ahead of it to grow and mature, but right now even on gigabit networks it seemed to be kind of poor. It's one thing for IE6 and Office 2003, but anything more seemed to have issues with. And since pretty much all educational software is web based now-a-days, and not only that but there's video clips and whatnot (Discovery Streaming, for example), things just didn't work out.

I can see why certain places go with cloud computing. It's a unique system and makes a lot of sense. But 1 solution to 1 problem isn't the only solution to ALL problems... meaning every situation is unique and different solutions may need to be addressed to each one.