vWorkspace - User Profile Management and Folder Re-direction (user shell folders)

Hi Daniel,

I've been using a custom unmanaged policy template for folder redirection for about 3-4 years now. It has the advantage of a very low login overhead compared to standard AD/GP folder redirection, but requires a bit of work with some simple scripts to make sure the back-end (eg user home drive) folder structure is there to make the redirection work. For example if you're redirecting the desktop and appdata etc, to the users home drive you need to make sure the necessary folder structure is there already.

This example assumes a home drive mapping of H: and redirection of folders to H:\windows\desktop, appdata and so on.

This can be done very easily using the "For /d" command in the root of the user's home directories.

for /d %i in (*) do md %i\windows\cookies & md %i\windows\appdata

A partial (main folders covered) policy template appears below:

----------- start folders.adm --------------
;folders.adm
;
; Note: this is an unmanaged policy and will require the
; "Only show policy settings that can be fully managed" unticked
; in the View > filtering settings

CLASS USER

CATEGORY "Unmanaged Folder Redirection"

POLICY "Redirect the My Documents Folder"
KEYNAME "Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders"
  PART "My Documents Folder Path" EDITTEXT
   VALUENAME Personal
   EXPANDABLETEXT
   REQUIRED
   DEFAULT "%UserProfile%\My Documents"
  END PART ;My Documents Folder Path

END POLICY ;Redirect the My Documents Folder

POLICY "Redirect the Application Data Folder"
KEYNAME "Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders"
  PART "Application Data Folder Path" EDITTEXT
   VALUENAME AppData
   EXPANDABLETEXT
   REQUIRED
   DEFAULT "%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming"
  END PART ;Application Data Folder Path

END POLICY ;Redirect the Application Data Folder

POLICY "Redirect the Desktop Folder"
KEYNAME "Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders"
  PART "Favorites Folder Path" EDITTEXT
   VALUENAME Desktop
   EXPANDABLETEXT
   REQUIRED
   DEFAULT "%UserProfile%\Desktop"
  END PART ;Favorites Folder Path

END POLICY ;Redirect the Desktop Folder

POLICY "Redirect the Cookies Folder"
KEYNAME "Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders"
  PART "Cookies Folder Path" EDITTEXT
   VALUENAME Cookies
   EXPANDABLETEXT
   REQUIRED
   DEFAULT "%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Cookies"
  END PART ;Cookies Folder Path

END POLICY ;Redirect the Cookies Folder

POLICY "Redirect the Favorites Folder"
KEYNAME "Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders"
  PART "Favorites Folder Path" EDITTEXT
   VALUENAME Favorites
   EXPANDABLETEXT
   REQUIRED
   DEFAULT "%UserProfile%\Favorites"
  END PART ;Favorites Folder Path

END POLICY ;Redirect the Favorites Folder

POLICY "Redirect the Recent Folder"
KEYNAME "Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders"
  PART "Recent Folder Path" EDITTEXT
   VALUENAME Recent
   EXPANDABLETEXT
   REQUIRED
   DEFAULT "%UserProfile%\Recent"
  END PART ;Recent Folder Path

END POLICY ;Redirect the Recent Folder

END CATEGORY ;Unmanaged Folder Redirection
--------------- end folders.adm -------------

It's important to note that some applications, from Autodesk in particular, really hammer appdata and cause a lot of network i/o in the process. Handling that sort of application takes a slightly different approach to appdata where the static parts of the folder are "handled" as part of the default user/mandatory profile and the dynamic part (the bits you want to keep on a per-user basis) get handled by the vWorkspace profile agent.

regards,

Rick