Roaming Profiles w/ Redirection or not? (2024)

FAQs

Roaming Profiles w/ Redirection or not? ›

A roaming profile roams with the user, meaning that the data in the user profile "roams" to whatever computer the user logs on to. Folder Redirection data doesn't roam at all. It's location is static, but it's redirected from the standard location (the local hard drive) to a different location (a network share).

Folder Redirection and Offline Files are used together to redirect the path of local folders, such as the Documents folder, to a network location, while caching the contents locally for increased speed and availability. Roaming User Profiles is used to redirect a user profile to a network location.

The main reason roaming profiles are helpful is because they help people who need to use different workstations have a consistent environment. There's no learning curve for a new desktop because the user interface is the same.

Yes, roaming profiles can cause long user loading times, especially if the profiles are large. This is because Windows has to download the profile from the server every time the user logs in.

Don't redirect appdata, for anyone, can cause so many issues.

Folder Redirection allows saving data regardless of storage location and separates user data from profile data decreasing the time required to log on. Other advantages include: Data is stored on a server where it can be backed up.

Should the objective be to maintain file synchronization across different devices for users, options like OneDrive for cloud storage or SyncThing could be considered. But in my opinion, FSLogix Profile Containers stand out as the preferred solution for enhanced manageability and maintenance.

A roaming user profile is a file synchronization concept in the Windows NT family of operating systems that allows users with a computer joined to a Windows domain to log on to any computer on the same domain and access their documents and have a consistent desktop experience, such as applications remembering toolbar ...

While Roaming Profiles are still supported in Windows 10 for some reason, they are considered “Not-the-best practices” by significant lot of IT pros, and Microsoft has publicly announced that Roaming Profiles will be deprecated in the future.

Check if a device uses roaming profiles (optional)

On the About page, under Local state, find Local Sync Backend Enabled. If it's true, then Roaming User Profiles is enabled. Local Backend Path shows the location of the roaming profile file.

What is the purpose of Folder Redirection? ›

Folder redirection is a feature in Windows Server 2008 that allows you to redirect certain user folders, such as My Documents, Favorites, Start Menu, Desktop, and Application Data, from being stored locally on your profile to server-based folders.

For optimal performance of the Folder Redirection feature, it is strongly recommended that you create only the root share on the server, and then let the system create the folders for each user. If you must create the folders for users, ensure that you correctly assign permissions.

Deleting these folders can not only possibly break Windows, but they will also indeed remove most of your program settings. Since these folders are protected, you'd have to boot into safe mode, then delete them and immediately regret it. If you're worried about drive space, then use a hard drive cleaner.

The main difference between the roaming profile folder and the home folder is that the roaming profile folder is not created until the user logs on and then logs off.

Folder redirection allows users to be logged in to multiple servers at once without issue accessing files whereas with UPDs, a user cannot be logged into more than one RDS concurrently as their UPD will be locked for use on one server and inaccessible from another until properly dismounted after logging off.

Folder Redirection is defined by automatically re-routing standard folders to use storage on another server. There are specific folders on a WSU employee's workstation that are storing the files or data on a separate server. The separate server can also be described as file shares.