Windows 98 Professional Reference

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User Profiles

User Profiles in Windows 98 let users retain their personal settings when they share a computer with others or when they use other computers on the same network. User Profiles store the following user-specific information:

At the simplest level, you can enable User Profiles on a stand-alone computer so that multiple users can log on and receive their own settings from one session to the next. A home computer, for instance, can store User Profiles for each family member. (This can avert a lot of family squabbling on a shared computer!)

With certain networks (Windows NT and NetWare), a copy of each person's User Profile information can also be stored on the network server. When you enable this capability, each person receives his own personal settings when he logs on to any computer on the network. When he logs off, any changes he made are automatically saved back to the server to be used at the next computer at which they log on. These network-based profiles are called Roving User Profiles.

NOTE: Microsoft interchangeably uses the terms "Roving User Profiles" and "Roaming User Profiles." They both refer to the same thing.

Finally, you can create a class of User Profiles called Mandatory User Profiles. When you do this, each person that you define to use them has a complete set of User Profile settings applied to any computer from which he logs on. Although the user can make changes once logged on (assuming any System Policy setting allows him the ability to do so), those changes are not saved and the system reverts to the Mandatory User Profile settings the next time he logs on from any computer.

The following list gives you specific advice for when to implement these different types of profiles:

System Policies or Mandatory User Profiles?
There is no need to use both Mandatory User Profiles and System Policies. Either one of these tools provides you with the same abilities to restrict or force user-specific settings, although System Policies additionally enable you to affect system settings.
You use Mandatory User Profiles when you want each user (you can choose which users) that logs on to a network to always receive exactly the same settings. This might be appropriate, for instance, for a customer service department where each user has exactly the same needs as the other users. Mandatory User Profiles can ease the training and support burdens in such an environment. Mandatory User Profiles affect settings only in the USER.DAT component of the Registry, and not SYSTEM.DAT. You use System Policies when you want users to be able to make some personal settings that can be accessed elsewhere on the network (or between sessions on the same computer). You also use System Policies when you need to enforce computer settings stored in SYSTEM.DAT, like various network policies you can implement. System Policies are applied on top of User Profile settings and can override them. System Policies are more powerful than Mandatory User Profiles because they can affect settings in the complete Registry: both USER.DAT and SYSTEM.DAT.
Both approaches are appropriate in different circumstances. Mandatory User Profiles are much easier to set up and maintain, as long as you can realistically apply a single set of user settings for each user. System Policies, however, give you more flexibility at the cost of greater complexity.

Understanding User Profile Files

When User Profiles are enabled, a set of directories and files is created for each user that logs on to the computer. These user-specific directories and files are stored in the \Windows\Profiles directory, and each user has a subdirectory that corresponds to his logon name. For instance, Figure 8.1 shows a computer's \Windows\Profiles directory with four User Profiles defined: Bruce, Christy, Deborah, and Joe. The profile directory for user Bruce has been expanded so you can see its contents.

TIP: You can see what profiles have been created on a particular machine in two ways: by looking in the \Windows\Profiles directory or by checking the contents of the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ Current Version\ProfileList Registry key.

Figure 8.1

An example of a \Windows\Profiles directory structure.

Each user's profile directory contains (at most) the following:

The preceding files and directories, in total, make up a single User Profile.

Enabling User Profiles

You enable User Profiles by using the Passwords Control Panel object. After opening Passwords, move to the User Profiles tab, shown in Figure 8.2.

Figure 8.2

You enable User Profiles through the Passwords Control Panel.

Select Users Can Customize Their Preferences and Desktop Settings. Windows switches to your personal settings when you log on to enable User Profiles. You can then choose with the appropriate checkboxes whether desktop shortcuts and Network Neighborhood contents, or the Start menu and Program groups are stored along with the User Profiles. Selecting these other options creates the matching folders and contents in each user's \Windows\Profiles directory.

Managing Roving User Profiles

Roving User Profiles are automatically enabled in the following circumstances:

When all of the preceding circumstances are true, each user's User Profile directories and files are copied to either her Windows NT home directory or her NetWare MAIL directory when she logs off the network. When the user logs on from another computer, the profile information is accessed from the network location.

NOTE: When a user logs off after using a Roving User Profile, both the local copy in \Windows\Profiles and her network copy is updated with any changes she made during that session.

You can have User Profiles and yet not have them be Roaming Policies. Using Registry Editor, select the Registry key HKEY_LOCAL\MACHINE\Network\Logon and add a DWORD value named UseHomeDirectory.

NOTE: Roving User Profiles are not shared between Windows 98 and Windows NT clients.

What if you want to use Roving User Profiles, but aren't using a networking client that supports them? You can still set up Roving Profiles in this scenario by following these steps:

1. Create a read-only network directory to which all users have access.

2. Create a read-only file in the directory called PROFILES.TXT.

3. In the PROFILES.TXT file, place the following information:

4. On each computer, use Registry Editor to locate the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ Network\Logon.

5. Create a string value named SharedProfileList and set the string value to be the full pathname of the PROFILES.TXT file you created in step 2--for example, \\SERVER\ EVERYONE\PROFILES.TXT.

After following the preceding steps, Roving User Profiles will work for each user defined in the PROFILES.TXT file (provided each computer has the necessary settings).

Creating Mandatory User Profiles

Mandatory User Profiles can be used when you want to force a particular set of User Profile settings on a user or group of users (or all users, for that matter) over a network. Mandatory User Profiles let you create a complete User Profile, and then force those settings on select users.

Creating Mandatory User Profiles is quite easy; just follow these steps:

1. On a Windows 98 computer that has User Profiles enabled, log on to the network using a new user name. This creates the new User Profile files in the \Windows\Profiles directory. For this example, say you create a user called NEWUSER.

2. Modify the user settings as needed, so that the Windows 98 environment is exactly as you want it to be for everyone that will use the Mandatory User Profile. This could include adding or removing Start menu items, changing Control Panel settings, mapping persistent network shares, changing the Registry directly, and so forth. Make sure to test all aspects of the environment you create!

3. Log off the computer using the Log Off command in the Start menu. This saves the changes you made in step 2 to the \Windows\Profiles\Newuser directory.

4. Log back on as Administrator.

5. Copy the entire contents of \Windows\Profiles\Newuser to the network profile location for a target user. Under Windows NT, this is her home directory. Under NetWare, this is her MAIL directory, or her home directory if she is using the NDS service.

6. In the target user's profile directory, rename the USER.DAT file to USER.MAN.

After following these steps, try logging on as the target user (or work with the target user to test these updates). After you're happy with how the Mandatory User Profile is working, you can copy the files to other user home directories as needed.

Common Problems and Solutions

When you use User Profiles, there are a few common complaints you might receive from your users:

1. User logs on to his main computer, Computer #1

2. While logged on to Computer #1, the user logs on to Computer #2. As you would expect, he gets all of his Roving User Profiles from the network when he logs on.

3. The user makes some change to his configuration on Computer #2, such as adding a program shortcut or changing their wallpaper.

4. The user logs off from Computer #2. His User Profile changes are stored on the network.

5. Later that day, when the user logs off from Computer #1, his User Profile settings on Computer #1 replace the ones stored by Computer #2.

6. The next morning, the user gets his Roving User Profile settings that were saved from Computer #1, and wonders what happened to the change he made on Computer #2. And of course, this happens no matter which computer he logs on to.

Conclusion

In this chapter you learned how User Profiles work in Windows 98 and how to enable them. You also learned about Roving User Profiles and Mandatory User Profiles, what each is for, and how to work with them.

Chapter 9, "Hardware Profiles," shows you how Windows 98 can accommodate shifting configurations on a single computer, such as what happens to a portable computer with a docking station, or a desktop computer that only periodically connects to a device like a scanner.

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