Vista .V2 roaming profiles and new redirection policies.

[PreviousPoster]

I have read through the MS Roaming User deployment guide:

http://download.microsoft.com/download/3/b/a/3ba6d659-6e39-4cd7-b3a2-9c96482f5353/Managing%20Roaming%20User%20Data%20Deployment%20Gu ide.doc

On my \\server\profiles$\username I have two profiles the old XP profile and the new Visa profile .V2. When I make changes to the XP profile it updates to the XP profile and when I make changes to the Vista profile it makes changes to the \\server\profiles$\username.V2 folder. I have set the folder redirect GPO for all the key folders on the roaming user profile.
Should the folder redirect policy update both of these folders so it can be used to update both folders. What I'm not quite understanding is how the folder redirect policy eg) \\servername\share\%username%\Desktop can update the folder V2 if you have two profile folder per user as below:

\\servername\profiles$\james

\\servername\profiles$\james.v2

To creat the v2 folder I simply did a rename then the Vista client could load the profile without the "unable to load your profile" error. Links to good article also helpful. Thanks

[JerryC]

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James

In the very document you referenced, if you'll look at Scenario 3, you'll notice that there is a footnote to the setups for most of the folder types that states that the setting should be applied to Vista devices only. The implication is that the folder redirection (of only certain folders) needs to be applied only to Vista devices and not to Windows XP devices. It sounds as if they want you to apply a WMI filter on the GPO so that the "User Configuration" setting for those folder apply only to Vista boxes.

Also, on page 36, there is a note that reads:

Note
To reduce the size of the user profile and provide the best logon performance, redirect Desktop and Documents to locations outside of the roaming user profile.

Experts in this field have stated that there are performance caveats to the use of WMI filters, but I have yet to see anything posted/written anywhere that actually quantifies those statements. In this case, it may be the only way to proceed in a mixed OS environment. Also, if any of your devices are Windows 2000 based, this won't work as they are blind to GPO-base WMI filters.

My best advice. Avoid having users switch operating systems...but we both know that in practice, that can be difficult to do.

[PreviousPoster]

Hi Jerry,

Thanks I have now read the doc properly and see what you mean about folder redirection (of only certain folders) needs to be applied only to Vista devices and not to Windows XP devices. As I'm rolling out a small number of users at one time I have decided to creat new user profiles and tell them they can't roam to XP clients. Unless they can have true roaming I can't really see the point attempting to get true compatibilty between XP and Vista roaming profiles if it only works on some of the profile folders. I will still use roaming profiles but users will have to stick to the same OS, this may be a pain but at least you still have the profile backed up to the server in case of drive failure. Thanks again.