Create Roaming Profile Windows 10

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Create Roaming Profile Windows 10 Average ratng: 4,4/5 2905 votes

Many a time system admins need to create a pre-configured user account which works with fixed settings. These profiles are called Mandatory User Profiles (one of many Unique profiles) in Windows 10. In this guide, we will share how you can create a Mandatory User Profile, where do you need it, and how it works.

Mandatory profiles (or their bigger brother, super-mandatory profiles) are a variant of the Windows roaming profile that many people still find useful. Changes to a mandatory profile are discarded at logoff, meaning that any modifications the user has made in-session are purged and the profile deleted. Apr 02, 2018  Hi all. We are currently developing our Windows 10 Education experience for our users, and have run into issues with the roaming profiles. Currently, when using a roaming profile, the start menu either breaks totally or loses certain icons when logging in for the second time (settings disappears from the right hand side totally).

What are Mandatory User Profiles in Windows 10

Imagine a scenario where you need to set up an account which has pre-configured access to almost everything. It includes the icons that appear on the desktop, desktop backgrounds, user preferences in Control Panel, printer selections, and more. Any change the user makes during the session is not stored and is only valid for that session.

This scenario fits well on a computer which is open to the public. The user can only have limited access to everything. This scenario also applies to a school computer where you don’t want kids to make any changes to the system.

Create default roaming profile windows 10

That said, these profiles are usually connected with a server. A system admin can make changes. In case the server is not available, users with mandatory profiles can sign in with the locally cached copy of the compulsory profile if one exists. Otherwise, the user will be signed in with a temporary profile.

Interesting to note that a system admin can apply mandatory user profile to an existing profile. We will get to see that in details.

How to create a mandatory user profile

Just before we start, this should only apply to individual cases & it is complicated for a general user. Its recommended not to use a computer that is for business or work. This process will remove all domain accounts available on the computer including user profile folders. It will result in loss of files.

  1. Create a default user profile, and set customizations for that user profile.
  2. Use Sysprep (Microsoft’s System Preparation tool) to copy this customized default user profile to a network share.
  3. Copy Profile & Set as Mandatory Profile.
  4. Apply a mandatory user profile to users using active directory.

How to create a default user profile

1] Sign-in to a computer with an account which is a member of a local Administrator group. Make sure not to use a domain account.

2] Next, make changes to computer settings that should be a fit to that user profile. It can include background, uninstall applications, install business apps and so on. Uninstalling unnecessary apps will help to speed up user sign-in times.

3] After this, we need to create an answer file (Unattend.xml) which sets the CopyProfile parameter to True. In short,

  • The answer file contains setting definitions and values to use during Windows Setup.
  • The CopyProfile setting can customize a user profile and use the customized profile as the default user profile.

First, we are customizing an existing profile and then set it as the default user profile.

4] Launch the Command Prompt, and type in the Sysprep command

sysprep /oobe /reboot /generalize /unattend:unattend.xml

This command will reboot the computer, and run the setup experience you usually get to see when you set up a new account. Once setup is complete, sign in to the Windows machine using an account that has local administrator privileges.

It is possible that you may get an error as “Sysprep was not able to validate your Windows installation.” If that’s the case go to %WINDIR%System32SysprepPanthersetupact.log. It will have a list of apps that you should remove. Do it manually.

You can also use the Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage and Remove-AppxPackage -AllUsers commands in PowerShell to uninstall those apps.

Copy Profile & Set as Mandatory Profile

5] Next steps is to copy this profile.

Go to Control Panel > System > Advanced system settings, and click Settings in the User Profiles section.

In User Profiles, click Default Profile, and then click Copy To.

Click on Copy To, under Permitted to use, click Change

Select User or Group, in the Enter the object name to select field, type everyone, click Check Names, and then click OK.

Click OK to copy the default user profile.

If you notice, there is a direct option to set this as a mandatory profile which is our primary intention. You can check on it, and check if it works. If it doesn’t, we have another way in case there is a problem.

To make the user profile mandatory

If you downloaded Macro Recorder Lite you should have license key for Lite. Jitbit macro recorder.

In File Explorer, open the folder where you stored the copy of the profile. Make sure to unhide the protected operating system files before that.

Rename the file Ntuser.dat to Ntuser.man.

Apply a mandatory user profile to users using Active Directory

If you want to ask a mandatory user profile to any user, you can follow these steps. Once complete, you will have to wait for the change to replicate to all domain controllers.

  1. Open Active Directory Users and Computers (dsa.msc).
  2. Navigate to the user account that you will assign the mandatory profile.
  3. Right-click the user name and open Properties.
  4. On the Profile tab, in the Profile path field, enter the path to the shared folder without the extension. For example, if the folder name is serverprofile.v6, you would enter serverprofile.
  5. Click OK.

While I have tried my best to simplify the process for you all, let us know if we can add anything which is missing.

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In this article, we will see how to delete a profile for a user account without deleting the account itself. This will allow you to reset all preferences and settings for all apps and Windows for a specific user.

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Note: This article doesn't explain how to delete a user account. Instead, we will see how to reset a user account's data by deleting its profile. If you need to delete the user account itself, please refer to the following article:

A user profile is a set of files and folders to store all the personal preferences, app settings, documents and other data. Every user account has an associated user profile. Usually, it is stored in the folder C:UsersUsername and includes a number of subfolders like Desktop, Documents, Downloads, etc along with hidden folders like AppData which store the settings for various Windows features and installed apps. The main purpose of the user profile is to create a personalized environment with individual options tailored to the end user.

If your user profile has got corrupted or if you need to reset it to default, then you can delete the profile without removing the account. The next time you sign-in, a new profile will automatically be created for your user account. Let's see how it can be done.

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Before proceeding, ensure that your user account has administrative privileges. Also, you cannot delete the profile for the current (active) account. Ensure you have signed in with another user account and not with the one whose profile data you wish to delete.

To delete a user profile in Windows 10, do the following.

  1. Press Win + R hotkeys on the keyboard. The Run dialog will appear on the screen. Type the following into the text box and press Enter:
  2. Advanced System Properties will open. There, click on the Settings button in the User Profiles section.
  3. In the User Profiles window, select the profile of the user account and click the Delete button.
  4. Confirm the request, and the profile of the user account will now be deleted.

The next time the user signs in, his or her profile will be re-created automatically, with all the default options and settings.

You might also be interested in learning how to delete a user profile manually. This procedure involves File Explorer and the Registry editor app.

Delete a user profile in Windows 10 manually

  1. Open File Explorer.
  2. Go to the folder C:Users and look for the user name which you want to delete. The appropriate folder contains everything related to the user profile, so you just need to delete this folder.
  3. Now, open Registry Editor.
  4. Go to the following Registry key.

    See how to go to a Registry key with one click.

  5. On the left, go through the subkeys. For each subkey, look for the value data of the ProfileImagePath string value. Once you find the one which points to the deleted user profile, remove it. See the following screenshot:

That's it! You just deleted the user profile for the account. It will be re-created using defaults the next time the user signs in.

Create Roaming Profile Windows 10 Registry

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