Remote Desktop Services troubleshooting

Remote Desktop Services FAQ - User profiles

I am planning to move my Terminal Server to new hardware. How can I move the user profiles to the new server?
User profiles are filling up my C: drive. Can I move them to my D: drive?
Users' Temporary Internet Files are filling up my harddisk

Q: I am planning to move my Terminal Server to new hardware. How can I move the user profiles to the new server?
Last modified: June 23, 2007

A: The easiest way is to configure all user accounts with a roaming profile, a couple of days before your intended server move. Once every user has logged on and logged off your old Terminal Server, the user profiles will be stored centrally and they will be loaded when your users log on to the new Terminal Server.

If you want to stick to local user profiles on the Terminal Server, here's the procedure to move them to the new server:

Create a test user account
Log on to the old server with the test user account and make a couple of changes in the user environment. Write them down and logoff

Start regedit on the old server and export the following 2 registry keys:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileGuid
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList

Start regedit on the new server and export the same keys, as a backup copy
Copy the exported keys (the .reg files) from the old server to the new server and import them, by double-clicking on them

Use robocopy to copy the user profiles. In the following example robocopy is run from the new server:

    robocopy "\\old_server\c$\documents and settings" "c:\documents and settings" 
       /COPYALL /S 
       /XD "\\old_server\c$\documents and settings\Administrator" 
           "\\old_server\c$\documents and settings\LocalService" 
           "\\old_server\c$\documents and settings\NetworkService" 
           "\\old_server\c$\documents and settings\Default User" 
           "\\old_server\c$\documents and settings\All Users"

That's it! Log on with the test user account and check the changes you made in step 2 to verify that your profile is loaded properly

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Q: User profiles are filling up my C: drive. Can I move them to my D: drive?
Last modified: July 20, 2008

A: The only supported method to change the location of the Documents and Settings folder is through an unattended setup of the Windows OS.
This is documented in the following KB article:

236621 - Cannot Move or Rename the Documents and Settings Folder

which also describes an unsupported procedure. If you choose to use that method, make sure that you have a full backup of the registry and the server, and that you know how to use the recovery console.

Personally, I would recommend to use roaming profiles. If you configure the server to delete the locally cached copy of the roaming profile when the users log off (see KB 274152), then you will never store more profiles on your Terminal Server than the number of concurrent users.

Minimize the size of the profile by using Folder redirection. Minimally, you should redirect My Documents to the users Home directory and get rid of Temporary Internet Files.

Recommended reading:
274443 - How to dynamically create security-enhanced redirected folders by using folder redirection in Windows 2000 and in Windows Server 2003
How does User Profile Manager address profile bloat?

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Q: Users' Temporary Internet Files are filling up my harddisk
Last modified: June 17, 2007

A: If you use roaming profiles, use a Group Policy to configure Temporary Internet Files to "not roam with the profile" (this is actually the default setting).
Also use a GPO to delete locally cached copies of the roaming profiles when the users log off.

You can find this setting in:

   Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\System\Logon   
   "Delete cached copies of roaming profiles"

As the Internet cache is not copied into the roaming profile, this will empty the cache at each logon.

If you don't use roaming profiles, you can set the Internet Explorer cache to 1k by pushing out the registry keys below in a logon script. Then use a Group Policy to prevent your users from changing this setting.

   Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
   [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings]   
   "SyncMode5" = REG_DWORD:00000003

   [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\5.0\Cache\Content]
   "CacheLimit" = REG_DWORD:00000400

   [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\Cache\Content]
   "CacheLimit" = REG_DWORD:00000400

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