A computers working environment is presented to the user upon logon. The environment is the combination of user settings and machine setting.

User settings: Desktop Folders Software	î		The user's environment is known as the user profile. It consists of the users registry setting and all of the files and shortcuts that make up the user interface, including the desktop, start menu, etc.  By default the user profile is stored at on the system drive at     \Documents and Settings\UserName
Machine settings: Boot options Device drivers Services Network settings	ì

The registry hive files for the machine settings are stored at ...\System32\config. Common user environment configuration is stored at
    \Document and Settings\All Users

NTUSER.DAT and the System32\config hive files combine to create the Registry and the other files in Documents and Settings combine to create the desktop environment as shown in the following diagram. All combined this creates the working environment.

Desktop á
å   ç
á Registry

Local User Profile

A users local profile is stored on the local disk and is initialized the first time the users logs on by a default configuration stored at
    Documents and Settings\Default User

	All Users	Æloaded	Logon
Default User ÆFirst logonÆ	UserX	Æloaded ásaved	Logoff

Global Default Profile

If a profile called Default User is created in the NETLOGON share, it is automatically used as the default user profile for all computers in the domain.

Logon Server ______Æ NETLOGON   Default User

Local Computer Æ Default User (Network)

æUserX First logon èUserY

Roaming User Profiles

If a user profile is stored on a server, it becomes a roaming profile that can be accessed on all network computers. The roaming profile gets copied to the local computer, but this locally cached profile is only used when the server profile is unavailable. If the network and local profiles become different then the changes can be merged.

All Users	Æloaded	Logon
Local UserX Merged? server's UserX	æloaded ásaved	Logoff

A mandatory profile is a profile that cannot be changed by the user. Mandatory profiles are used to provide a constant environment where a users cannot accidentally modify or destroy parts of their environment. Mandatory profiles are the same as roaming profiles with the exception that the user hive file must be renamed from NTUSER.DAT to NTUSER.MAN. Normally each user has their own profile. Because mandatory profiles do not change, they can be shared by a group of users.

The user profile path can be set with the following user property dialog.

File names for logon scripts can be specified in the dialog above. Logon scripts for local account logons are stored in

• %SystemRoot%\System32\Repl\Imports\Scripts

Domain Controllers are automatically configured to have a NETLOGON share. When users authenticate to a domain controller, they get their logon scripts from this share which is at

• %SystemRoot%\SYSVOL\sysvol\DNSDomainName\scripts

Creating Profiles

New profiles can be created by copying existing profiles. Use the following dialog, available through My Computer Properties, to copy a profile.

Keyboard Exercise

Find the user profile files under the Documents and Settings folder. Ensure that the Explorer Folder Options are set so that you can view hidden files and folders. Additionally, find the hive files in ...\System32\config.