Since these folders are redirected to network shares, you trade local I/O impact for network/remote I/O impact.
When used with roaming profiles, it can significantly reduce the size of the portable profile data carried around by users for logon/logoff. There are two primary benefits to Folder Redirection as it applies to profile data:
This immediate access removes the need to update the user profile.
Windows redirects the local folder to a central location, giving the user immediate access to their data when they save it, regardless of the computer they are using. This division of user data decreases user logon times because Windows downloads less data. Folder redirection provides a way for administrators to divide user data from profile data. This redirection is transparent to the user and gives the user a consistent way of saving their data, regardless of its storage location. Temporary profiles are only available on computers running Windows 2000 and later.įolder redirection is a client-side technology that provides the ability to change the target location of predetermined folders found within the user profile. Temporary profiles are deleted at the end of each session, and changes made by the user to desktop settings and files are lost when the user logs off. Mandatory profiles can be created from roaming or local profiles.Ī temporary user profile is issued each time an error condition prevents the user's profile from loading. Changes made by users to desktop settings are lost when the user logs off. Only system administrators can make changes to mandatory user profiles. The advantage of roaming user profiles is that users do not need to create a profile on each computer they use on a network.Ī mandatory user profile is a type of profile that administrators can use to specify settings for users. Changes made to a roaming user profile are synchronized with the server copy of the profile when the user logs off. This profile is downloaded to each computer a user logs onto on a network. Changes made to the local user profile are specific to the user and to the computer on which the changes are made.Ī roaming user profile is a copy of the local profile that is copied to, and stored on, a server share. The profile is stored on the computer's local hard disk. This blog post contains a high-level overview of different types of profiles, considerations for choosing a profile solution for your deployment, highlights of new profile features in Windows Server 2008 R2, and a best practices recommendation for deploying roaming user profiles with folder redirection in a Remote Desktop Services environment.īelow are some basic definitions for background understanding of different types of profiles and folder redirection.Ī local user profile is created the first time a user logs on to a computer.
First published on CloudBlogs on Jun, 03 2009