Chapter 12: Deploying User Profiles

Chapter 12

Deploying User Profiles

Microsoft Windows XP and Microsoft Windows Server 2003 (Windows) store user settings separate from computer settings. The computer's settings affect every user who logs on to Windows. Computer settings include hardware configuration, network configuration, and so on. Typically, only the Administrators group can change computer settings, but some settings are within reach of the Power Users group. On the other hand, a user profile contains settings for a specific user. Users customize the operating system to their liking, and their settings don't affect other users. Users have full control of their own profiles, which contain more than just settings. They also contain files and folders specific to each user.

Deploying and managing user profiles are two of the most significant issues facing IT professionals. Properly deploying and managing user profiles can save companies money. That's because most of the behaviors that users experience in Windows have settings in user profiles, and IT professionals can deploy user profiles that contain defaults for these settings, starting users off correctly. For example, they can populate the Favorites folder with links to the intranet so that users don't have to find those links for themselves. They can add printer connections to a default user profile so that users can print right away without having to figure out how to add a printer. Notice that most of the useful policies that manage operating system and application settings are in user profiles. IT professionals manage the settings in user profiles by applying policies to them.

Mastering user profiles isn't just for IT professionals; power users, particularly those who use multiple accounts on their computers or who work on a home network, can create user profiles to simplify their experience. They can customize a default user profile. Then whenever they reinstall Windows or create a new account, they start with familiar settings and don't have to spend an hour customizing the operating system to suit their tastes. User profiles aren't that complicated, and power users should use them to their full advantage.

I've written this chapter primarily for the IT professional; power users need master only portions of it. First you learn about the contents of a user profile. Then you learn how to use roaming user profiles on a business network. The most compelling part of this chapter shows you how to build and deploy default user profiles. In that part, I show you two techniques for building default user profiles. The first is traditional but rather messy. I prefer the second method, which is a more precise (and tidy) method of building default user profiles. I wrap up this chapter with a discussion of the Microsoft User State Migration Tool, which can help overcome the difficulties involved with migrating users' settings from earlier versions of Windows.