NT Profiles

An NT Profile contains the settings for a specific user, including the user's environment and preferences. The settings comprise a folder structure and NTUSER.DAT file. As discussed above, these are stored locally under the %systemroot%\profiles\%username% folder.

The NTUSER.DAT file is a registry hive that contains the registry data for the user. The Registry settings stored in this hive include:

NT Explorer preferences ("look and feel" of the Explorer interface, such as view options and window positions)
Persistent network connections
Application configuration data
Control Panel settings

The folder structure includes the following folders:

Application Data—specific application data, such as custom dictionaries
Desktop—desktop icons in the form of .LNK files
Favorites—shortcuts to favourite locations (used extensively by Internet Explorer and MS Office)
History—Web browsing history of URLs visited
NetHood—shortcuts for Network Neighbourhood
Personal—should be default "Save As..." location for applications (akin to "My Documents")
PrintHood—shortcuts for printer links
Recent—shortcuts to recently accessed documents and files
SendTo—shortcuts for Explorer's context menu
Start Menu—personal Start Menu Program items (includes StartUp)
Templates—shortcuts to templates
Temporary Internet Files—locally cached data from Web browsing

Tip: Temporary Internet Files can cause significant delays during login if using Roaming Profiles. Consider altering the location in Internet Explorer Properties | General | Temporary Internet Files | Settings.

Profile Types

Windows NT provides three different types of profile: Normal, Mandatory, and Roaming.

Normal Profiles (sometimes called cached profiles) exist only on the local machine. Users can modify their environment and changes will be maintained on the local machine only.
Mandatory Profiles do not allow users to save the modifications they make to their environment. Users can adjust the settings for their current session, but these will not be maintained for subsequent logins.

Note: This important concept is often a point of confusion between Profiles and System Policies. If you want to stop users from performing certain actions (such as changing the wallpaper), you need to apply System Policies. Mandatory Profiles prevent the saving of modifications; they do not restrict the ability to modify.

Mandatory Profiles are pre-configured and the Registry hive has a .MAN extension as opposed to .DAT.

Roaming Profiles follow users from machine to machine. They are stored on network drives (in NetWare NDS environments this is under the user's %HOME_DIRECTORY) and are downloaded during the login process. It is therefore possible for a user to modify their environment on one machine and receive the same environment on a different machine.

Note: Problems can arise if users roam to differently configured machines. Specifically, shortcuts and menu items may become invalid. For example, if you move from a machine with IE4 Active Desktop installed to a machine with IE3, you may be unable to launch Windows Explorer from Start | Programs | Windows NT Explorer.

It is possible to combine Mandatory and Roaming Profiles to create a centrally controlled desktop environment that will be reset upon each subsequent login. For example, you could create a LOCKEDNT.MAN profile in a Read and File Scan only directory such as SYS:PUBLIC and specify the full pathname in the "Find Mandatory Profile in a NetWare File System" field.

Default Profile

When a user first logs in to an NT workstation and no Normal (Cached), Roaming, or Mandatory Profile exists, the user receives a copy of the Default Profile. The Default Profile consists of the same folder structure and NTUSER.DAT file as any other profile. It exists in the %systemroot%\profiles\Default User folder.

With this knowledge, it is possible to prepare a standard profile that will be granted to new users as they first log in. Since the Default Profile comes from the local computer, a user with a Roaming Profile enabled will receive that profile from the Default Profile of the first workstation the user logs in to. The Default Profile can be copied to from an existing Profile using Control Panel | System | User Profiles | Copy To... whilst logged in as a local Administrator.

Tip: There is a Registry key HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT that contains the Profile settings (such as wallpaper) to be used when no user is logged in. Don't confuse this with the %systemroot%\profiles\Default User\Ntuser.dat hive file, which contains the Registry settings for new users.

ZENworks WinNT Roaming Profiles

ZENworks supports Roaming Profiles through the use of the WinNT User Package, which is one of the Policy Package NDS objects made available when ZENworks is installed. WinNT User Package objects can be associated with NDS user, group, or container objects. The Search Order can be managed through the use of a Container Package object.

One of the policies available within the WinNT User Package is "NT Desktop Preferences". Within this policy object are two property pages: Control Panel and Roaming Profile (see Figure 1).

Figure 1: The NT Desktop Preferences policy object has two property pages.

Both User (Normal) and Mandatory Roaming Profiles are supported. Both are considered Roaming, as the Profile is stored on a network drive and should be available from any computer logged in. Normal Roaming Profiles (User Profiles) have to be stored under the user's home directory.

Note: It is important that the NDS Home Directory property be set for the NDS User object and that long file name support be enabled on the volume containing the home directory. The Profile is stored in folder named "Windows NT 4.0 Workstation Profile" directly beneath the user's home directory (for example, VOL1:HOME\DAVID\Windows NT 4.0 Workstation Profile).

The contents of the folder are identical to those held on the local machine. The contents are copied to the local profile folder by NWGINA.DLL (NetWare Graphical Identification aNd Authentication Dynamic Link Library) during the login process. The user then uses the local profile for the duration of the session, after which the Profile is copied back the Roaming Profile directory during the logout process.

A Mandatory Roaming Profile can be located anywhere on a network drive. This is enabled by selecting "Find Mandatory Profile in a NetWare File System" and specifying the full path to the Profile folder. As with the Default Profile on the local machine, the contents of a suitable Profile can be copied to this location. It is recommended that only Read and File Scan file system rights be granted to this folder to prevent tampering (such as renaming NTUSER.MAN to NTUSER.DAT).