How to configure Roaming Profiles and Folder Redirection
Posted by Alan Burchill on 18 August 2010, 7:00 pm
Read Me First: If you are using Folder Redirection with Windows 7 in your organisation then I would definitely recommend that you check my other blog post about a pretty nasty Folder redirection bug and how to fix it at Disappearing Folder Redirection Issues with Windows 7
Update: I have new blog post that describes the new “Primary Computer” feature in Windows 8 for folder redirection at How to configure a “Primary Computer” (a.k.a. msDS-PrimaryComputer property) in Windows 8 I also talk about this feature in a TechNet Edge video at EdgeShow 55
Roaming Profiles and Folder redirection is what allows a user to logon onto any computer in an organisations and have all their personal files and setting apply to that computer as it was the last time they used a computer. This is really a Win/Win for Users and IT Pros as for a user this is a big time saver as they no longer need to waste time setting up their drives, printers and other personal settings when they have to use another computers. IT Pro’s also benefit when there is an un-expected failure or loss of a computer then they don’t have to go through what could be a lengthily, costly and if not impossible, process of recovering the users data.
Now theoretically User State Virtualization can be totally done with just a Roaming Profile, however this quickly becomes impractical as users often store a LOT of data which can make users profile impossibly large. To get around this Microsoft users folder redirection to essentially redirect parts of a users profile to a file share on a server where it is centrally access whenever they logon to a computer.
In case you still wondering what User State Virtualization is then check out the overview video from Microsoft