Backing Up User Settings

Backing Up User Settings

Backup Utility puts per-computer settings in system state data, but it doesn't back up per-user settings from users' profile folders. Those settings are in each profile folder's NTUSER.DAT file. Don't forget the per-user class registrations that Windows stores in %UserProfile%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows\UsrClass.dat. You have to pick these up manually either by selecting them in Backup or Restore Wizard or by using another means of backing up users' settings, such as backing up roaming user profiles. Windows does a great job of protecting per-computer settings and fixing them when they aren't functioning properly, but it doesn't do as good of a job with per-user settings. In my experience, after users' settings are completely fouled, the support call lasts too long, and users don't always leave the experience happy.

Backing up user profiles from each computer isn't practical on a large network. You can use System Restore to fix users' profiles because it backs up settings from the profiles in the key HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList. You can take a more proactive approach, however. One solution is implementing roaming user profiles. Assuming they're compatible with your environment–roaming user profiles don't work well in mixed environments or when hardware configurations vary wildly from one computer to the next–the central storage of roaming user profiles makes it possible to back up users' settings as part of the server's normal backup routine. Even if users don't log on to multiple computers, roaming user profiles might be worth implementing just for this capability alone. Restoring a user's profile consists of logging the user off of Windows, restoring the user's profile folder to the server, and then logging the user back on to Windows.

NOTE
Chapter 12, “Deploying User Profiles,” gives this subject more attention. You learn how to deploy different types of user profiles, back them up, and more. You also learn about the many improvements that Windows makes to roaming user profiles, which just might make them more feasible in your organization.