local profile | PeteNetLive

KB ID 0001235

Problem

Moving a machine onto a Windows domain, is a simple task, I’ve done this for a lot of clients. The main complaint (post migration,) is that something is missing. This is because your-account-name on your PC or laptop, and your-account-name in the domain are TWO DIFFERENT ACCOUNTS, (even if they have the same name).

Microsoft have produced some tools help you, but I challenge you to start reading the USMT documentation for more than 15 minutes without losing the will to live.

Below is a list of things people have complained to me about losing post migration;

Desktop wallpaper.
Files & Folders from the desktop.
My Documents.
Internet Favorites.
My Pictures.
Outlook Signatures.
Outlook Mail Accounts.
Word Custom Dictionaries.
Work Autocomplete Settings.
MS Access Macro settings.

So I setup a test Windows 10 machine, with all of the above setup, and used two tools to migrate my local profile into my domain profile.

Solution

Test 1 ForensIT User Profile Wizard

Software is free (there are paid for versions) but I plumbed for the free one, you don’t have to install anything as it runs from an executable, (which is a bonus if you have a lot to do). Its VERY fast, and simple to use.

I’ve joined my target machine to the new domain and logged on once as the domain user and created a blank profile, then logged back on as the domain admin to carry out the following.

Launch the software > Next > Select the profile you want to copy from.

Select your domain name > Enter the logon name for the ‘DOMAIN USER’ you want to copy the profile to > Next > Next.

Verdict: Of the two, this ones quicker, more intuitive and free.

Test 2 USMT GUI 10

This is a graphical wrapper that sits on-top of the Microsoft USMT tools, I donated $10.00 for the cheapest version, and repeated the tests above.

First you have to take a backup of the local profile(s).

I’m just choosing one (Pete) > RUN > My profile was 177Mb and it took about 5 minutes.

Now resort the profile back to your domain profile, as you can see that’s a little more complicated, but not that difficult > RUN.

At this point it ran thought and gave me an error, even though it did migrate the profile successfully.

Verdict: Well it does the job, it’s probably a lot more versatile than the first tool, but nowhere near as intuitive, and it costs $10. I know that’s cheap, and the dev deserves to be paid for their hard work, but I prefer the free one.

Problem

I have a client who manages the network at a school. They wanted to stop the profiles of their users being cached, in either the c:documents and settings or c:users folders (depending on the version of Windows and profile the users were using).

Solution

1. Log into a domain controller or a machine running the RSAT tools, Start > Administrative Tools > Group Policy Management > Either edit an existing group policy, or create a new one that is linked to your COMPUTERS.

2. If creating new policy, give it a sensible name > OK

3. Edit the relevant policy.

4. Navigate to;

[box]Computer Configuration > Policies > Administrative Templates > System > User Profiles[/box]

Locate and edit “Delete User Profiles older than a specified number of days on system restart”.

5. Enable the policy and set it to 1 (24 hours) > Apply > OK.

6. Then edit the “Delete cached copies of roaming profiles” and enable that policy. (This will stop the copies caching locally as the user logs on) > Apply > OK.

7. Close the policy editor. Then get the clients to reboot, wait a couple of hours, or manually run “gpupdate /force” on them.

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Tag Archives: local profile

Migrating Local Profiles to Domain Profiles

Problem

Solution

Test 1 ForensIT User Profile Wizard

Test 2 USMT GUI 10

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