Windows 7 default domain profile
- By Huzaifah Ahmad
- Published 05/29/2010
Huzaifah Ahmad
I am currently working as a Senior Field Consultant. I started my professional career in 1999 in India. In the year 1999 I decided to transition from the Retail Industry to hard core Information Technology, which was always my strength and desire. I realised my strengths and keen interest when I worked on Dbase III Plus a few years back but due to various constraints I could not pursue my career at that point in time. I have worked in various capacities in the fields of Software Technology, as Systems administrator, Systems Support Engineer, Implementations Engineer and Senior Implementation Engineer. Currently, I am based as Senior Field Consultant for a Microsoft Gold Partner in Oxford, U.K.
I am certified in various disciplines
CCIE # 23368
CCNP
CCNA
CCA
MCSE NT, 2k & 2k3
MCSA 2k & 2k3
MCSE 2k & 2k3 (Messaging & Security)
MCSA 2k & 2k3 (Messaging & Security)
I devote my free time to the technology communities. I believe knowledge grows by sharing and I love to share my knowledge. I believe it is important to be passionate and really enjoy whatever you do. I am also the founder and maintain Ahmedgroup (http://www.ahmedgroup.co.uk)
1. Logon as a user on windows 7 (local user).
2. Customise all the settings you would like to have for this user.
3. Log off and login as administrator.
4. Ensure you have enabled "show hidden files" & "show protected operating system files".
5. Than go and rename the "default" profile to default.old.
6. Rename the profile which had been customised earlier in step 1 to "Default". This would effectively replace the original "Default profile” which was created earlier at the time of the Operating system installation.
7. Now use the "copy to" feature like we did in windows 2000,XP days.
8. Copy the profile to NETLOGON folder of your domain.
Example: \\server\NETLOGON\Default User.v2
9. Before clicking "copy to" ensure you click the "permissions to use" option and change the permissions to "everyone"
10. Now when a user logs on for the first time and does not already have a "Domain profile" will automatically look at the NETLOGON share and see if it can find a domain profile. If the template profile exists it will copy it down to the local machine. Once the user logs off and has roaming profile configured under users properties it will copy the newly created profile to the relevant location i.e. for example a File Server. Once this user logs on the second time it will not look at the NETLOGON share as it will pick it up from the roaming profile share. If for some reason this profile is corrupt and needs deleting, once the profile is deleted the user tries to logon again it will copy the new profile over from the NETLOGON share.
Note: You can connect to any server's Netlogn share in your domain as it will eventually replicate to all Domain controllers in the domain.
If you would like to refer to some other options please refer to the Microsoft KD article 973289 mentioned below.
How to customize default user profiles in Windows 7 and in Windows Server 2008 R2
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/973289
HTH
:)