We create new default profiles:
- log in as a new user and start all the applications that need to
create personalized settings.  You can also change other appropriate
settings (autosave times, default home pages, etc.) You can also do
things like remove unneeded folders from the default user profile to
make it smaller.  Clear out the local settings/temp folder and clear the
cache on web browsers.
- restart (otherwise you'll have trouble copying the profile since
windows will say it's "in use") and log in as administrator and then
open system properties: control panel | system
- on the advanced tab, click the Settings button under User profiles. 
select the profile you created earlier and then click "Copy To”.  
- Enter “C:\Documents and Settings\Default User” in the field (or
browse to it) and click OK.  You’ll get a warning that it will delete
the existing files.

On next reboot, all new profiles will be a copy of the one you just set
up.  It’s still slower than using an existing profile, but each user
will get his/her own to customize as they see fit.

Michael Finn
Network Administrator
Essex Town School District
58 Founders Road
Essex, VT 05452

(802) 857-1574
[log in to unmask] 


>>> Bob Wickberg <[log in to unmask]> 04/04/2007 09:39 >>>
Are you saying if you do this, there's only one profile on the
machine,
that all users share, or just that all the profiles are the same, and
the
profile for a given user is the same on every machine they go to?

One thing that annoys folks around here is that, every time a person
sits
down at a machine they haven't used before, it has to create a profile
when they log in, a process that can take a couple of minutes.  The
machine sits there with that small window in the upper left, saying
"creating personalized settings for" for a list of programs that seems
to
grow longer and longer every time m$ releases another patch.  Then,
when
the user first launches an office 2003 app, it says, installing office
2003, and sits there again for a while.  Very annoying to a student
who
just popped into the lab to print a paper they wrote at home and saved
on
a flash drive.  I'd love to have a way around this, though I'd have to
consider the tradeoffs, if any.



School Information Technology Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
writes:
>In a Windows environment, you can use roaming profiles, then the
>students can all use just one profile.  Basically, they all log in as
>themselves, but the system "sees" them as one profile.  We have some
of
>our schools use the same profiles for all students and one of our
>schools has a different profile for the older students.  By making
the
>profiles mandatory, they don't take on any of the changes students
might
>make, such as backgrounds and screen savers.
>
>The only thing with using a mandatory roaming profile is that it is
>imperative for students to save in their own network folder. 
Anything
>saved in the My Documents folder is lost at log off.
>
>Sylvia Gagne
>Franklin Northwest SU
>District Technology/Data Coordinator
>100 Robin Hood Drive
>Swanton, VT 05488
>802.868.4967 x20
> 
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Eric Hall [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
>Sent: Tuesday, March 27, 2007 12:03 PM
>To: [log in to unmask] 
>Subject: Re: User Profiles
>
>> What I've done is tried to set up machines initially so the default
>user
>> profile is as small as possible,
>
>Agreed. A significant amount of our image-building time is spent on
>creating
>a "streamlined" Default user profile - application preferences set,
>first-run messages eliminated, mapped drives set, etc. etc. I find
that
>this
>step makes user experience as consistent and trouble-free as possible
>even
>when using different models and OS versions. As we compile lists for
>image
>updates (a process which usually starts within a week or two of
>deploying
>new images) I find that there are more user-specific changes than
>system-wide changes on the list!
>
>
>Eric Hall
>Technology Coordinator
>Waterbury/Duxbury Schools
>Washington West Supervisory Union
>Waterbury, VT
>(802) 244-6100