Preload user profile from a domain to expedite first log in

Question

We have a few new and not-so-new computers that will soon be used by a large number of new people. From what I've seen, even the new ones take a long time to set up the profile when the user logs in for the first time. On top of that, we still need to transfer their data from their previous workstation. My question, is there any way to preload (at least partially) a profile so that the first log in does not take forever and at the same time saves us the hassle of manually moving the user's files around?

Thank you in advance

Answer 1

Using Folder Redirection to redirect the users folders (Documents, etc.) to a network share would mitigate the need to copy their files from workstation to workstation.

Using roaming profiles would mitigate the time it takes to build a user profile on a new workstation. With roaming profiles the profile (including application settings) would be built once and from that point forward would follow the user from workstation to workstation. It would simply be copied from the network share to the local workstation whenever a user logs on.

Folder Redirection would allow you to keep the user profiles relatively small because you'd be redirecting folders out of the roaming profile.

Answer 2

On top of joeqwerty's answer I would add something;

In roaming's profile, windows copy all the data to the local computer minus redirected's folder before the login, but you can use another product that stream the user profile (Citrix Profile Manager), thus it copy only the needed file for the login.

Profile Streaming:

With profile streaming, users' profiles are synchronized on the local computer only when they are needed. Registry entries are cached immediately, but files and folders are only cached when accessed by users.