OK, so this is a bit lagged, I've been busy lately....  :)

I've sort of accidentally used roaming profiles with Windows 98 machines
in years past, which caused all sorts of havoc.  If a user was in the
habit of creating folders on his/her desktop and putting lots of stuff
there, all that got copied back to the server when they logged off, and
copied back to the desktop when they logged in.  For some users, this made
for long login/logout times.  Also, it messed up the start menu, too,
users would find icons pointing to apps that weren't even installed on the
machine they were sitting at, because they had been on another machine
they were once at.  Perhaps this has improved since win98, but I've
avoided them ever since, and used scripts to do what I needed to do.  

If your clients are windows 2000 and XP, and you have active directory,
you can probably accomplish all you need quite easily using group policies
instead of using profiles.  (BTW, Win98 support ends July 11 of  this
year, according to Microsoft's web site).  The lovely thing about policies
is if users screw something up, like deleting an icon from their desktop I
really wanted them to have, or setting their wallpaper to something
contrary to school policy (they figure out how to do it, even when there
are policies in place to prevent them from changing the wallpaper. 
Firefox is one app that ignores those policies, the windows photo viewer
is another), I can set these things back to normal as soon as they log in
again.


School Information Technology Discussion <[log in to unmask]> writes:
>Roaming profiles seem to work great at St. Michael's College.
>
>I mapped the My Documents folder to the user's network storage in my lab
>and the very next day I heard a student exclaim "My Documents goes right
>to my J: drive. Cool!"
>
>Mapping My Documents to the place where my documents are supposed to be
>stored. No there's a concept that should generate hours of hand-wringing
>and discussion.
>
>--Steve Barner, South Burlington
>
>>>> [log in to unmask] 04/14/06 8:12 PM >>>
>Bjorn - 
>
>If you could point me to instructions for mapping My Documents that
>would be
>great! I have not dared to use roaming profiles as I am concerned about
>the
>server load when 25 users log on simultaneously... Am I right in
>thinking
>that logon time is longer if the profile is being copied/synchronized
>from
>the server?
>
>We have discussed the pros and cons of mapping drives and folders to
>home
>directories vs. forcing users to navigate the network (through
>shortcuts) to
>a share point. Some have argued that this process helps students
>conceptualize "where" things are being stored. If they do not recognize
>the
>difference between local and network storage, it may also be difficult
>for
>them to find shared network folders, which we use a great deal.
>
>
>Eric Hall
>Technology Coordinator
>Waterbury/Duxbury Schools
>Washington West Supervisory Union
>Waterbury, VT
>
>
>> What are you looking to do?
>> 
>> I found it much easyer to set up each computer with a default profile
>how i
>> want it.  and just remap the my documents folder to the users home
>folder.
>> 
>> If that is a route you want to take let me know and i will post some
>> instructions.
>> 
>> Bjorn Behrendt
>> Technology Director
>> Proctor School District
>> [log in to unmask]
>> phs: (802) 459-3353
>> pes: (802) 459-2225
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> School Information Technology Discussion <[log in to unmask]> on
>> Wednesday, April 12, 2006 at 3:35 PM -0500 wrote:
>> Any one have experience with roaming profiles?
>>  
>> - how effective
>> - how much band width
>>  
>> Thanks
>>  
>> Ken
>> 
>
>
>
>
>
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