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Creating XP Profiles for Users

By Smullster ·
I'm about to roll out 70 new computers with Windows
XP Professional. I'm wondering / hoping that there is a
way to create a user's profile on the system without
having to have them login.

I'm in a situation where I have migrate the user's data
from their old computer to a new XP box, but many
times the user is unavailable to provide their login
information. I know their User Name but I'm not terribly
excited about having them give me their password.

Is there a way to do this, or am I just dreaming about a
really neat feature?

Thanks,
Allan

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by kevin203 In reply to Creating XP Profiles for ...

First of all, are they using the local machine user or domain user?

If local machine user then your can reset their password by logging in as an administrator account.

If they are using domain user, then you can reset their password from the AD.

One more thing, migrating data could be more easier if you provide a roaming profile with folder redirection.

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by Smullster In reply to

Hi Kevin,

My users log into a domain.

In the past I have changed their passwords and have asked them to call the corporate Help Desk to have the password reset, which for the most part works, but I've had a few user who become 'madder than hornets' that their password was changed.

I should add, that most of my users are medical doctors. Their unavailability stems from them being with patients. By changing their password I definately can hinder them getting to patient medical information.

What I'd like to be able to do is create their profile while their away, and migrate their data and settings without having to inconvenience them with either changing their password or having them give it to me.

Thanks,
Allan

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by Gigelul In reply to Creating XP Profiles for ...

If you know what data must be to save, for what you need the user's password?
Why you don't use the local admin account?
My opinion is that you must tell to the users to collect all their data in one folder and then you will copy this folder on the new workstations.
Also make a backup of their profiles, if late the users will want their favorites or something else.

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by Smullster In reply to

Hi Florinel,

These users log into a domain and do not have access to the Administrator account. The goal is to make their new computer appear just like their old one (but with better performance, hopefully).

Unfortunately my users aren't terribly sophisticated with using the computer. They use it for very basic things and don't have the time usually to learn the tool in depth.

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by Gigelul In reply to Creating XP Profiles for ...

Comment:
In this scenario you will have a lot of works to do.
More works if the old computers have other OS than WinXP.
Roaming profile with WinXP didn't works for me with a WinNT domain (many times the profile was corrupted).

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by Gigelul In reply to

Post a comment with more details:
-what applications use your users?
-you upgrade some application?
-where are the users data? Local or on Servers? What type of documents?
-they use roaming profiles or local profiles?
-what OS are on old computers?
-what domain WinNT or Win2k?
-you have remote access to the workstation's HDD?

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by Gigelul In reply to
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by mwc In reply to Creating XP Profiles for ...

To my knowledge you cannot create a user profile without logging them in. This is because a unique SID is created for each user. What you can do is modify the defaut user profile to include items you want every user to get. See
http://www.jsiinc.com/subk/tip5300/rh5374.htm

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by Smullster In reply to

Thanks, MWC. That's what I needed.

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by Smullster In reply to Creating XP Profiles for ...

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