Re: Subtle bug in Windows? Different profile directory as you roam...

Tech Tip: Click here to run a free scan for Windows Errors and optimize PC performance

From: AndyC (andyc69_at_tiscali.co.uk)
Date: 07/22/04 

Date: Thu, 22 Jul 2004 12:27:39 +0100

The "bugs" you're seeing are almost certainly due to hard coded paths.

You probably set your backdrop to c:\documents and settings\smith\my
pictures\image.bmp or something. When you roam, that path is no longer valid
and so Windows can't display it. The same thing often happens if Windows is
installed on a drive other than C: You can often fix it by making sure the
appropriate registry key/shortcut uses the environment variable.

It is a bit annoying, though largely a non-issue as it is unusual for Domain
computers to have local accounts.

AndyC

"Michael A. Covington" <look@ai.uga.edu.for.address> wrote in message
news:OCCMXC4bEHA.2844@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
> I'd like to hear from anyone with deep thoughts about a situation that
> should not cause malfunctions, but does...
>
> ...namely the situation where a roaming user roams from one PC to another
> and gets his profile copied into a differently named directory on
different
> PCs.
>
> Suppose we have user Smith in domain Dom. And there are two computers,
PC1
> and PC2. And PC2 also has a local user named Smith.
>
> Then when Smith roams to PC1, his profile goes into:
> c:\Documents and Settings\Smith
> but when he roams to PC2, his profile goes into:
> c:\Documents and Settings\Smith.Dom
>
> In general, to prevent conflicts with a pre-existing directory, Windows
will
> add the domain name and then, if necessary, .001, .002, etc. to the end of
> the directory name.
>
> Conflicts can arise not only when there's a local user with the same name,
> but also when directories are left behind that should have been deleted
but
> weren't, e.g. due to a crash.
>
> Well... In this situation Windows had trouble copying my desktop back and
> forth correctly, and my desktop wallpaper did not roam with me.
>
> It seems to me this should not have been a problem, because the operating
> system should have been looking at %userprofile% to find the profile,
rather
> than trying to use a directory name stored from previous use.
>
> For more on this, including VBSCRIPT code to detect the situation, see:
> www.covingtoninnovations.com/michael/blog/0407/index.html#040721
>
> Thoughts, anyone?
>
>

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Subtle bug in Windows? Different profile directory as you roam...
    ... Windows sees that there's already a smith profile ... > ...namely the situation where a roaming user roams from one PC to ... In this situation Windows had trouble copying my desktop back ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.general)
  • Subtle bug in Windows? Different profile directory as you roam...
    ... And PC2 also has a local user named Smith. ... Then when Smith roams to PC1, his profile goes into: ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.general)
  • Re: Roaming profile on XP not roaming
    ... It seems that it sometimes roams, ... unreliability of it - e.g. if it corrupts when the network is dropped I ... I should also point out that this machine is a laptop - so when the profile ... does decide to roam, and it is offline, a Userenv error does occur and I get ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.networking)
  • Re: Server 2003 does not backup full profile
    ... The issue is not that Windows Server does not backup the full profile - we ... do - we backup the full profile that roams. ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.general)