Roaming Profiles in Windows NT4.0\2000 for XP
By Daniel Sellers, Gerry Hamilton
In reviewing possible configurations for a Lab network using Windows XP based clients it became obvious that the first hurdle would be a single login. However, the second is maintaining a single interface for all users. In order to make Windows XP more efficient in the Lab environment it is necessary to have the ability to feed links and other files directly to the user’s desktop as well as allowing the user to logon to any machine on the network with one password and user name.
By using a Windows NT\2K based network the single login is easily accomplished. The ability to feed links to the clients is most easily accomplished using a single roaming user profile for all of the users or, alternately using a different profile for each group(class) of users(students). Once the roaming profile is created it can be made mandatory by changing the extension from .dat to .man. Once this is done all users connected to the profile must use it without the ability to modify it. This allows the administrator to set a single wallpaper for all the users without having to reset it every couple of days. To copy a file or link to the desktop the administrator simply copies the link or file to the shared profiles desktop directory. ( Be sure to set the rights to the file to the same as the parent directory or the login will always fail.) A file would be fed in the same manner. A single start menu would reduce the amount of frustration for the student when trying to find a file on XP ( it has two different start menus).
The only difference in running the roaming profiles off of a windows NT server and a windows 2000 server boils down to the speed. Serving from a Windows 2000 it took about 1 minute and 48 seconds to logon. Using the same hardware and LAN connection with NT 4.0 it took about 5 seconds to login. This included the time from pressing login to when the logging in window disappeared. They both had identical results with the same amount of control and the same tools for configuring profiles. While it does not provide the process control or some of the other feature of ZENworks it is currently the only available system to accomplish these goals. The same result may be possible using a Linux domain controller we will be testing that in depth also.