roaming profile / homedirectory difference

celtic_tiger

Hi All

I know a roaming profile allows you to access your profile (desktop etc.) anywhere but then when a users profile (documents and settings folder) is stored on the server in their home directory dosent that also allow them to access their profile anywhere? The diffenrence is not clear to me!

Can any one put this in laymans for me?

Thanks for reading.

ptilsen

celtic_tiger wrote: »

Hi All

I know a roaming profile allows you to access your profile (desktop etc.) anywhere but then when a users profile (documents and settings folder) is stored on the server in their home directory dosent that also allow them to access their profile anywhere? The diffenrence is not clear to me!

The difference between what? It's not quite clear what you're asking, to me. Are you wondering about profile redirection vs. home folder redirection?

Redirecting an entire profile to any network location is "roaming profiles". Mapping the "home folder" is just Documents/My Documents, rather than the entire profile. Roaming profiles are valuable when you are in a homogeneous environment in which users might work at multiple computers but have identical or nearly identical needs at each computer. Redirected My Docs is valuable if users simply need to be able to access key files from multiple computers or if you are not backing up workstations and want an easy way to backup their key files (since the server is backed up). With server 2008/Vista and beyond, you can also redirect other profile folders separately, meaning you can leave music at the workstation but redirect other "Documents" files and sub-folders.

It's also important to understand the role of Offline Files in any variation of the above strategies.

celtic_tiger

Thanks for your reply

What I mean is, Dosent the user files get stored on the home directory of the server? e.g. user jims desktop, documents etc. are then stored not on his local machine but on the server in e.g. \\dc1\home.

Then jim can log onto any machine in the network and get his desktop & documents etc. as its stored in this home directory and as you say the home directory is backed up.

Roaming profile Im told is so the user can get their desktop & documents anywhere in the network so hold on I dont see the difference with the above other than instead of the home directory its stored in a different shared folder somewhere else.

On 2nd read of your reply, the user just gets their basic desktop, documents etc. stored in the home directory so what are they missing out on by not having a roaming profile??

I dont have a roaming profile at work but i dont feel im missing anything.

ptilsen

Roaming profile is the entire profile, meaning (typically) all the contents of the C:\users\[username] folder. Redirected "Home directory" is just Documents / My documents (which usually includes Music, Videos, Games, and other "My" folders). It does not include Desktop or other directories outside of the "My Documents" folder.

ptilsen

I should elaborate that these terms are very loosely defined. Using GPO, profile settings, registry changes, or scripts you can essentially redirect any sub-directory of the profile folder to point to anywhere, network or local. Server 2008 AD and on coupled with Vista and on clients can redirect any specific folder using Group Policy alone.

celtic_tiger

I see, yes a gpo or script could be giving me my desktop despite the fact that I do not have a roaming profile. But this is not traditionally the case. If a user only has the standard home directory/folder redirection they do not get their desktop on differnet machines. I am part of the administrators group therefore its fairly likely that we are set to get our desktops by policy or scripts.

Ill do a little digging into our gpo's

Thanks very much mate.