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Profiles

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by legj1

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If you are migrating users from a workgroup to a domain(2000 and NT PC's), how is the best way to maintain their desktop settings, apps, everything they had locally? I am not using Roaming Profiles. ALL I want is a domain account that was exactly like their local/workgroup account.
Seems copying the profiles under System Settings\User Profiles does not work very well. Has anyone found a succesful way to do this? All help is appreciated! Thanks

8 replies

by jim.kam

First of all I want to clarify that Win98 and WinME don not support roaming profile so I just ignore this two OS.

Win2k Pro and WinXP Pro login into Win2k Server using Roaming profile, which 1 profile reside in your local PC,and another 1 copy inthe server(if you had set the profile). What can you do to get back the desktop, and apps setting is to copy all files in-systemroot:\Documents and settings\(username)-which is the name the user used to login to the workgroup, to systemroot:\Documants and settings\(username)-Which is the name the user used to login to the domain. When prompt, overwrite all files. Log off and log in again, and you will see the effect.

# some of the apps might not working porperly, you had to manually change the path of the shortcut to the appropriate application.
# perform a backup first before you copy the profiles.

by legj1

I am not and do not want to use roaming profiles... Thanks though. I did not explain myself very well. See below for a better explanation. Thankls again. Basically...I am simply copying local accounts to local/domain account. No Roaming profiles.

by mcarswell

I would have to disagree you can get Roaming profiles to work in windows 98, but that is another issue all the same.

I recommend that you go under the properties of my Computer on the Win2000\NT Pc Click on the Users Profile Tab and Chose the user Profile that your are going to configure as a roaming Profile then Click on the copy to Button and copy this profile to a Server that will store all the users Roaming profiles. On 2000 you will have the option to choose who will have the right to use this profile and you will need to Specify the user account permitted to use this profile then choose OK. Next you will need to go into the User Manager For Domains or AD and specify the users Profile Path under their account. This Profile Pathshould be the path to the user profile that you have just copied to the central Server. I typically copy the user Profile to there Home drive and Specify the UNC name to this profile under the users Profile Path.
Example :
Home Drive = H: To:\\SERVER\USERNAME$
Profile Path :\\SERVER\USERNAME$\PROFILE
(dont Forget to Create the Share)
Now the next time the users logs in to a workstation there profile will be copied to that machine. To clarify the users profile does not give the usersall the applications that they had before it only give them the specific setting for that application. Also to get the best use out of roaming profiles your machines need to be identical in software builds as well as some hardware configuration.

by legj1

Appreciate the help, but I am not using and don't intend to use Roaming Profiles. All I wanted to know was a simple way of transferring profiles from local to domain/local accounts. IE> Administrator account to Administrator\Domain account.

by mcarswell

There is not simple way fo doing this. The best way that I know to do this is to log on as the users domain account then log off. The you will need to logon with an account that has admin rights and copy the Users LocalUser account profile to the Users DomainUsers Profile and specify the users account that will have rights to use that profile.

by legj1

Thanks, I just wanted to know if I was pulling my hair out for nothing. I was hoping for an easier and more reliable process. Oh well....I guess it will be a long, drawn out process.

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