sync-ing client with the server

A friend told me that in his company when he logs in and logs out to the
company domain, his computer takes ages to be ready, as well as many other
users.
It looks like all his profile is copied FROM the server to the client and
later saved back TO the server before the computer shuts down.
Considering that his profile is well more than 30 Gb, despite the network
is gigabit, the time consumption is unacceptably high, even if it's just
once in the morning and once in the evening.
He understands that in case his computer fails, he can login from a
different one and get back all his data but consider also that quite often,
software updates and windows updates force him to reboot and waste even
twenty minutes before the computer is back on its tracks.

Clients are almosta all Windows 7 and some Windows 8.1
The server is Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard

My two questions...

- first: is this sync-up-and-down the only way to make the job working? I
mean, is it mandatory to sync the whole profile every login/logout?
- second: if the answer to the a.m. point is YES, is it possible to exclude
some folders? (i.e. Downloads, Temp, shpxvat-Apple backups, Music, WER,
Mozilla/Chrome cache, etc)

Thank you

--
/-\ /\/\ /\/\ /-\ /\/\ /\/\ /-\ T /-\
-=- -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- - -=-
http://www.bb2002.it
............ [ al lavoro ] ...........

In message 12,
Ammammata writes:
A friend told me that in his company when he logs in and logs out to the
company domain, his computer takes ages to be ready, as well as many other
users.
It looks like all his profile is copied FROM the server to the client and
later saved back TO the server before the computer shuts down.
Considering that his profile is well more than 30 Gb, despite the network
is gigabit, the time consumption is unacceptably high, even if it's just
once in the morning and once in the evening.

30 Gb? Really? I don't think my total user space at my last two
employers came anywhere near that! (IIRR, something like 2G to 5G - and
that after 33 years with the company.)

He understands that in case his computer fails, he can login from a
different one and get back all his data but consider also that quite often,
software updates and windows updates force him to reboot and waste even
twenty minutes before the computer is back on its tracks.

Clients are almosta all Windows 7 and some Windows 8.1
The server is Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard

My two questions...

- first: is this sync-up-and-down the only way to make the job working? I
mean, is it mandatory to sync the whole profile every login/logout?

On the whole, yes, you need the whole profile ...

- second: if the answer to the a.m. point is YES, is it possible to exclude
some folders? (i.e. Downloads, Temp, shpxvat-Apple backups, Music, WER,
Mozilla/Chrome cache, etc)

Thank you

.... but that sounds like it's a lot more than the profile - sounds like
the entire user space (possibly known as "his H: drive" or something
similar). It shouldn't be necessary to sync. all of that! The "profile"
should be just lots of settings - how he has the taskbar and start menu
set up, and various settings for things like Office, maybe his desktop -
and maybe _will_ take a _few_ minutes.

Downloads and Music certainly shouldn't be copied up and down every day.
Ditto Apple backups, if it's what I think it is; I don't know what WER
is. There's usually no need to copy Temp or browser backups at all.

He should definitely have a word with his IT department; this sounds
like something that is misconfigured. It must significantly be affecting
productivity - his and his colleagues.

My first thought was that maybe he's one of those many people who keeps
big files on his desktop, rather than shortcuts to them - but if it's
really copying things like Temp, Music, and browser caches, and he is
sure of that, then something is wrong somewhere. (Mind you, still worth
asking him if he has files - rather than shortcuts - on his desktop. [By
default, shortcuts have a little arrow on them.] There shouldn't be
folders either, unless they contain only shortcuts. Ideally, folders
should be on network drives too, with shortcuts to them if it makes
things convenient to have such.)

Unless he works for a record company, I'm surprised they let him have a
Music area!

I would hope, also, he's using the user space he's been allocated on a
server; if he's storing everything on C:, that's not good. But that
should have been a matter of training - and the IT department should
have delivered the computer with things like Office etc. configured to
use network storage by default; if they didn't, they're seriously
falling down on the job.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Have the courage to be ordinary - people make themselves so desperately unhappy
trying to be clever and totally original. (Robbie Coltrane, RT 8-14 Nov. 1997.)

Il giorno Mon 25 Sep 2017 03:52:51p, *J. P. Gilliver (John)* ha inviato
su alt.windows7.general il messaggio
. Vediamo cosa ha scritto:

30 Gb? Really? I don't think my total user space at my last two
employers came anywhere near that! (IIRR, something like 2G to 5G -
and that after 33 years with the company.)


all these guys keep all mail messages inside their Outlook, most of them
with big attachments; even if they archive old items every year, they need
all those PST files available

take 5-6 years times 6-7 Gbytes each and you have a 30 Gb "profile"

... but that sounds like it's a lot more than the profile - sounds
like the entire user space (possibly known as "his H: drive" or
something similar).

YES! that's what I mean

It shouldn't be necessary to sync. all of that!

I agree

He should definitely have a word with his IT department; this sounds
like something that is misconfigured. It must significantly be
affecting productivity - his and his colleagues.


I totally agree

My first thought was that maybe he's one of those many people who
keeps big files on his desktop, rather than shortcuts to them - but if
it's really copying things like Temp, Music, and browser caches, and
he is sure of that, then something is wrong somewhere. (Mind you,
still worth asking him if he has files - rather than shortcuts - on
his desktop.

not their case: they do have big mail archives, as well as big Apple backup
archives. I already asked Apple whether was possible to reconfigure the
backup folder, moving it out of the "profile", on a different disk: nope.
Did you buy an Apple? Well, you must obey to their rules, even if they are
stoopid rules.


Unless he works for a record company, I'm surprised they let him have
a Music area!


actually, more than music it's the video folder, with several short
advertising movie, product demos, instruction videos

thank you for your comments, I'll forward to the guy

--
/-\ /\/\ /\/\ /-\ /\/\ /\/\ /-\ T /-\
-=- -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- - -=-
http://www.bb2002.it
............ [ al lavoro ] ...........

In message 12,
Ammammata writes:
Il giorno Mon 25 Sep 2017 03:52:51p, *J. P. Gilliver (John)* ha inviato
su alt.windows7.general il messaggio
. Vediamo cosa ha scritto:

30 Gb? Really? I don't think my total user space at my last two
employers came anywhere near that! (IIRR, something like 2G to 5G -
and that after 33 years with the company.)


all these guys keep all mail messages inside their Outlook, most of them
with big attachments; even if they archive old items every year, they need
all those PST files available

take 5-6 years times 6-7 Gbytes each and you have a 30 Gb "profile"
[]
Ah, I'd forgotten about mail attachments. (I thought .pst files were now
"deprecated" in favour of some other mechanism.) I _suppose_ .pst files
are part of their profile.

People definitely should be told - repeatedly - to save attachments if
they're important, and then delete them: Outlook has that facility. IF
nothing else, they can be told it'll make Outlook work faster. (I assume
they use Outlook, if they've got Office; most companies do, I believe.)

As for the music folder, which you say contains things like product
videos - that suggests we're talking company laptops; when you said
logging in (or something like that), I assumed company desktops. Yes, if
they're travelling employees (salesmen etc.), I can see that they do
need copies of such on their hard drive, to show to people; however,
syncing those shouldn't be done at login/logout time, but as a
background task after connection. Also, it should be done by a proper
syncing algorithm - i. e. only files that have changed should be copied,
not all of them.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

The best way to achieve immortality is by not dying.

On Mon, 25 Sep 2017 14:52:51 +0100, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"
wrote:

In message 12,
Ammammata writes:
A friend told me that in his company when he logs in and logs out to the
company domain, his computer takes ages to be ready, as well as many other
users.
It looks like all his profile is copied FROM the server to the client and
later saved back TO the server before the computer shuts down.
Considering that his profile is well more than 30 Gb, despite the network
is gigabit, the time consumption is unacceptably high, even if it's just
once in the morning and once in the evening.

30 Gb? Really? I don't think my total user space at my last two
employers came anywhere near that! (IIRR, something like 2G to 5G - and
that after 33 years with the company.)

Even now mine is only 3.2GB, but I've recently removed my development
folder, 12GB, into a seperate directory off-root of the data drive,
because not all my PCs need to have access to it, and, as you can
imagine, removing it made syncing my personal files between PCs so
much quicker.

He understands that in case his computer fails, he can login from a
different one and get back all his data but consider also that quite often,
software updates and windows updates force him to reboot and waste even
twenty minutes before the computer is back on its tracks.

Clients are almosta all Windows 7 and some Windows 8.1
The server is Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard

My two questions...

- first: is this sync-up-and-down the only way to make the job working? I
mean, is it mandatory to sync the whole profile every login/logout?

On the whole, yes, you need the whole profile ...

- second: if the answer to the a.m. point is YES, is it possible to exclude
some folders? (i.e. Downloads, Temp, shpxvat-Apple backups, Music, WER,
Mozilla/Chrome cache, etc)

Thank you

... but that sounds like it's a lot more than the profile

Exactly, his whole profile doesn't need to include *all* his personal
data, only that part of it which he uses and alters on a daily basis.
Other data he can keep outside his profile and back it up to the
server as and when anything gets changed.

sounds like
the entire user space (possibly known as "his H: drive" or something
similar). It shouldn't be necessary to sync. all of that! The "profile"
should be just lots of settings - how he has the taskbar and start menu
set up, and various settings for things like Office, maybe his desktop -
and maybe _will_ take a _few_ minutes.

Downloads and Music certainly shouldn't be copied up and down every day.
Ditto Apple backups, if it's what I think it is; I don't know what WER
is. There's usually no need to copy Temp or browser backups at all.

He should definitely have a word with his IT department; this sounds
like something that is misconfigured. It must significantly be affecting
productivity - his and his colleagues.

Exactly.

The default data layout on PCs is prompted by the Windows defaults,
and many IT departments don't understand that these defaults are
unsuitable in many, perhaps most, situations, whether for personal
and/or corporate use.

To start with what might seem a small point, but very rapidly can
become a very big one, commonly users' downloads are stored in their
profile, and these can often be movies, installation files, etc each
of hundreds of MB or even a few GB in size. Your friend may be able
to help himself by systematically going through his profile deleting
such things as are no longer required.

For another thing, it's not good practice to store data on the same
partition or logical or physical drive as the operating system,
because ...

:-( if the amount of data on the PC gets too large, it can
adversely impact the stability and security of the system - updates
can fail through lack of disk space, the system may slow to an
unusable crawl through lack of swap space, etc. A neighbour brought
in a PC for me to fix the other day, which turned out to have exactly
this problem.

:-( If you wish to upgrade the OS on a given machine, you have to
copy off all the user data first, and the chances are you won't find
it all, and some of it may get lost, whereas if the data is on a
different partition, in principle you can more easily change the OS
without affecting the data.

For another, you run into precisely the sort of problems you describe.
If all data is kept in a user's profile, then ...

:-( If a user downloads illicit material, it will then get backed
up onto the firm's servers, possibly placing them in a legally
ambiguous situation.

:-( If a user's job involves legitimately storing large amounts of
data, you need a system to back it up that only backs up what will
hopefully be only the few ten or hundreds of MB that has changed on a
given day, not the entire umpteen GB's worth every day.

For further information on this, you may care to read the following -
the details of the procedure relate to Windows 2000 so can be ignored,
but don't be put off by that into thinking that it cannot possibly
have any relevance now, the underlying principles and reasoning remain
exactly the same today as they were then:

http://www.macfh.co.uk/JavaJive/Wind...eBuilding.html

Moving on ...

My first thought was that maybe he's one of those many people who keeps
big files on his desktop, rather than shortcuts to them - but if it's
really copying things like Temp, Music, and browser caches, and he is
sure of that, then something is wrong somewhere. (Mind you, still worth
asking him if he has files - rather than shortcuts - on his desktop. [By
default, shortcuts have a little arrow on them.] There shouldn't be
folders either, unless they contain only shortcuts. Ideally, folders
should be on network drives too, with shortcuts to them if it makes
things convenient to have such.)

Unless he works for a record company, I'm surprised they let him have a
Music area!

I would hope, also, he's using the user space he's been allocated on a
server; if he's storing everything on C:, that's not good. But that
should have been a matter of training - and the IT department should
have delivered the computer with things like Office etc. configured to
use network storage by default; if they didn't, they're seriously
falling down on the job.

.... yes, both the IT department - via its system configuration and
producing standards and codes of best practice for its users - and
the individual users themselves, need to have a clear idea, preferably
an accepted policy, of what sort of data gets stored where, and how
often and by what means it should be backed up.
--
================================================== ======
Please always reply to ng as the email in this post's
header does not exist. Or use a contact address at:
http://www.macfh.co.uk/JavaJive/JavaJive.html
http://www.macfh.co.uk/Macfarlane/Macfarlane.html

In message , Java Jive
writes:
On Mon, 25 Sep 2017 14:52:51 +0100, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"
wrote:

In message 12,
Ammammata writes:
A friend told me that in his company when he logs in and logs out to the
company domain, his computer takes ages to be ready, as well as many other
users.
It looks like all his profile is copied FROM the server to the client and
later saved back TO the server before the computer shuts down.
Considering that his profile is well more than 30 Gb, despite the network
is gigabit, the time consumption is unacceptably high, even if it's just
once in the morning and once in the evening.

30 Gb? Really? I don't think my total user space at my last two
employers came anywhere near that! (IIRR, something like 2G to 5G - and
that after 33 years with the company.)

Even now mine is only 3.2GB, but I've recently removed my development
folder, 12GB, into a seperate directory off-root of the data drive,
because not all my PCs need to have access to it, and, as you can
imagine, removing it made syncing my personal files between PCs so
much quicker.

Quite - and that syncing shouldn't be part of the profile downloading
that is part of logon anyway.
[]
- second: if the answer to the a.m. point is YES, is it possible to exclude
some folders? (i.e. Downloads, Temp, shpxvat-Apple backups, Music, WER,
Mozilla/Chrome cache, etc)

Thank you

... but that sounds like it's a lot more than the profile

Exactly, his whole profile doesn't need to include *all* his personal
data, only that part of it which he uses and alters on a daily basis.
Other data he can keep outside his profile and back it up to the
server as and when anything gets changed.

Or have a background sync task do it automatically.
[]
He should definitely have a word with his IT department; this sounds
like something that is misconfigured. It must significantly be affecting
productivity - his and his colleagues.

Exactly.

The default data layout on PCs is prompted by the Windows defaults,
and many IT departments don't understand that these defaults are
unsuitable in many, perhaps most, situations, whether for personal
and/or corporate use.

In which case they shouldn't qualify as an IT department.

To start with what might seem a small point, but very rapidly can
become a very big one, commonly users' downloads are stored in their
profile, and these can often be movies, installation files, etc each
of hundreds of MB or even a few GB in size. Your friend may be able
to help himself by systematically going through his profile deleting
such things as are no longer required.

I think we are confusing "profile" and "user space". I can't think of
_any_ reason a user's downloads folder should be in his _profile_, by
which I mean something downloaded whenever he connects.

For another thing, it's not good practice to store data on the same
partition or logical or physical drive as the operating system,
because ...

:-( if the amount of data on the PC gets too large, it can
adversely impact the stability and security of the system - updates
can fail through lack of disk space, the system may slow to an
unusable crawl through lack of swap space, etc. A neighbour brought
in a PC for me to fix the other day, which turned out to have exactly
this problem.

Agreed to all.

:-( If you wish to upgrade the OS on a given machine, you have to
copy off all the user data first, and the chances are you won't find
it all, and some of it may get lost, whereas if the data is on a
different partition, in principle you can more easily change the OS
without affecting the data.

And again.

For another, you run into precisely the sort of problems you describe.
If all data is kept in a user's profile, then ...

:-( If a user downloads illicit material, it will then get backed
up onto the firm's servers, possibly placing them in a legally
ambiguous situation.

Should be part of the IT policy, enforced with threats of dismissal. But
that's incidental to what we're talking about: whether you have users
have a separate private download area (for that or other reasons), it
shouldn't be part of the profile-that's-downloaded-every-login.

:-( If a user's job involves legitimately storing large amounts of
data, you need a system to back it up that only backs up what will
hopefully be only the few ten or hundreds of MB that has changed on a
given day, not the entire umpteen GB's worth every day.

Yes, an automatic (and preferably background) syncing scheme.

For further information on this, you may care to read the following -
the details of the procedure relate to Windows 2000 so can be ignored,
but don't be put off by that into thinking that it cannot possibly
have any relevance now, the underlying principles and reasoning remain
exactly the same today as they were then:

http://www.macfh.co.uk/JavaJive/Wind...eBuilding.html

Thanks - I don't, as I'm not an IT department (-:.

Moving on ...
[]
... yes, both the IT department - via its system configuration and
producing standards and codes of best practice for its users - and
the individual users themselves, need to have a clear idea, preferably
an accepted policy, of what sort of data gets stored where, and how
often and by what means it should be backed up.

Indeed. And backup should _probably_ not be the responsibility of users,
except perhaps for today's work for those producing lots of data or
valuable data.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Just because you're old it doesn't mean you go beige. Quite the reverse.
- Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, RT 2015/7/11-17

On Mon, 25 Sep 2017 17:43:50 +0100, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"
wrote:

Even now mine is only 3.2GB, but I've recently removed my development
folder, 12GB, into a seperate directory off-root of the data drive,
because not all my PCs need to have access to it, and, as you can
imagine, removing it made syncing my personal files between PCs so
much quicker.

Quite - and that syncing shouldn't be part of the profile downloading
that is part of logon anyway.

I've never used it very much, but, AFAICR, by default many versions of
Visual Studio place a great deal of stuff, perhaps everything, in a
user's profile.

Exactly, his whole profile doesn't need to include *all* his personal
data, only that part of it which he uses and alters on a daily basis.
Other data he can keep outside his profile and back it up to the
server as and when anything gets changed.

Or have a background sync task do it automatically.

Indeed.

He should definitely have a word with his IT department; this sounds
like something that is misconfigured. It must significantly be affecting
productivity - his and his colleagues.

Exactly.

The default data layout on PCs is prompted by the Windows defaults,
and many IT departments don't understand that these defaults are
unsuitable in many, perhaps most, situations, whether for personal
and/or corporate use.

In which case they shouldn't qualify as an IT department.

Dream on !-)

To start with what might seem a small point, but very rapidly can
become a very big one, commonly users' downloads are stored in their
profile, and these can often be movies, installation files, etc each
of hundreds of MB or even a few GB in size. Your friend may be able
to help himself by systematically going through his profile deleting
such things as are no longer required.

I think we are confusing "profile" and "user space". I can't think of
_any_ reason a user's downloads folder should be in his _profile_, by
which I mean something downloaded whenever he connects.

Again, the default of many browsers is to put them in the profile.

Should be part of the IT policy, enforced with threats of dismissal.

Yes, but users, including perhaps IT staff, not all of whom are purer
than the driven snow, nevertheless break the rules and may get
careless.

But
that's incidental to what we're talking about: whether you have users
have a separate private download area (for that or other reasons), it
shouldn't be part of the profile-that's-downloaded-every-login.

Yes, but again, many, I would guess most, programs, including
browsers, by default will put everything in the user's profile.
--
================================================== ======
Please always reply to ng as the email in this post's
header does not exist. Or use a contact address at:
http://www.macfh.co.uk/JavaJive/JavaJive.html
http://www.macfh.co.uk/Macfarlane/Macfarlane.html

In message , Java Jive
writes:
On Mon, 25 Sep 2017 17:43:50 +0100, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"
wrote:

Even now mine is only 3.2GB, but I've recently removed my development
folder, 12GB, into a seperate directory off-root of the data drive,
because not all my PCs need to have access to it, and, as you can
imagine, removing it made syncing my personal files between PCs so
much quicker.

Quite - and that syncing shouldn't be part of the profile downloading
that is part of logon anyway.

I've never used it very much, but, AFAICR, by default many versions of
Visual Studio place a great deal of stuff, perhaps everything, in a
user's profile.

I think once again we are using the word "profile" differently. To me,
at least in the employee-of-a-company-who-logs-in-daily sense, the
profile is a strictly limited and defined set of things - not really a
space "into" which things can be placed. I do _not_ mean "the user's C:
drive", or even that user's space _on_ the C: drive. If such a profile
has not been properly defined, it needs to be - and this should be the
responsibility of the IT department, not the users, who in most cases
don't know enough.
[]
The default data layout on PCs is prompted by the Windows defaults,
and many IT departments don't understand that these defaults are
unsuitable in many, perhaps most, situations, whether for personal
and/or corporate use.

In which case they shouldn't qualify as an IT department.

Dream on !-)

No comment.
[]
I think we are confusing "profile" and "user space". I can't think of
_any_ reason a user's downloads folder should be in his _profile_, by
which I mean something downloaded whenever he connects.

Again, the default of many browsers is to put them in the profile.

No, in (a browser-specific place in) the user's space on the C: drive.
Browsers don't _know_ about profiles, as _I_ am using the word.
[]
But
that's incidental to what we're talking about: whether you have users
have a separate private download area (for that or other reasons), it
shouldn't be part of the profile-that's-downloaded-every-login.

Yes, but again, many, I would guess most, programs, including
browsers, by default will put everything in the user's profile.

See above.

To me, "profile" - in this sense - means, more or less, a list of things
(mostly configuration files, though could e. g. include the desktop) to
be copied. _Not_ a set of _folders_ to be copied. Such a set of
_folders_ might be synced, ideally in background, once the user is
logged in, but this should _not_ happen as part of the login process
(other than perhaps _starting_ the sync utility).
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Of course, this show - like every other cop show on earth - massively
overstates the prevalence of violent crime: last year, in the whole of the UK,
police fired their weapons just three times. And there were precisely zero
fatalities. - Vincent Graff in RT, 2014/11/8-14

On Mon, 25 Sep 2017 19:49:04 +0100, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"
wrote:

To me, "profile" - in this sense - means, more or less, a list of things
(mostly configuration files, though could e. g. include the desktop) to
be copied. _Not_ a set of _folders_ to be copied. Such a set of
_folders_ might be synced, ideally in background, once the user is
logged in, but this should _not_ happen as part of the login process
(other than perhaps _starting_ the sync utility).

That is your own interpretation of it; to most others, and to
Microsoft, a user's profile is everything under
Legacy: C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME
Now: C:\Users\USERNAME

This will indeed include everything I've mentioned above, such as user
downloads, visual studio projects including all the source and build
files, etc, often also software automatic update downloads as well,
though sometimes they are downloaded to elsewhere on C:, perhaps the
%Windir%/Temp directory.

As in the link I gave, the first thing I do after installing Windows
or any new software is configure it to save important data on the D:
drive, and the default C: drive profile only ever contains temporary
files, etc. and is only backed up when I take a Ghost image of the
system disk every month or so, whereas the D: drive is backed up most
evenings before I go to bed, using DeltaCopy, a CygWin version of the
Linux rsync program, which backs up only changed files.
--
================================================== ======
Please always reply to ng as the email in this post's
header does not exist. Or use a contact address at:
http://www.macfh.co.uk/JavaJive/JavaJive.html
http://www.macfh.co.uk/Macfarlane/Macfarlane.html

Ammammata wrote:

A friend told me that in his company when he logs in and logs out to the
company domain, his computer takes ages to be ready, as well as many other
users.
It looks like all his profile is copied FROM the server to the client and
later saved back TO the server before the computer shuts down.
Considering that his profile is well more than 30 Gb, despite the network
is gigabit, the time consumption is unacceptably high, even if it's just
once in the morning and once in the evening.
He understands that in case his computer fails, he can login from a
different one and get back all his data but consider also that quite often,
software updates and windows updates force him to reboot and waste even
twenty minutes before the computer is back on its tracks.

Clients are almosta all Windows 7 and some Windows 8.1
The server is Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard

My two questions...

- first: is this sync-up-and-down the only way to make the job working? I
mean, is it mandatory to sync the whole profile every login/logout?
- second: if the answer to the a.m. point is YES, is it possible to exclude
some folders? (i.e. Downloads, Temp, shpxvat-Apple backups, Music, WER,
Mozilla/Chrome cache, etc)

Thank you

So your user is in a domain that is setup for roaming profiles.
Configuring the host to NOT use a roaming profile when connecting to the
corporate domain means not having to download or save it over the
network.

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/lib...(v=vs.85).aspx
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/.../cc977964.aspx

Never had to do domain administration. From the 2nd article, looks like
the domain admin can change a user profile so it is NOT roaming. That
is, specify the user profile is only on one particular host.

Of course, when that user's workstation dies and they lose the hard
drive then they also lose their profile. It won't be a roaming profile
stored up on the PDC (Primary Domain Controller) server to re-retrieve
to a newly replaced workstation.

If there is 30 GB in the user's profile then they are storing their data
files under the My Documents folder under their %userprofile% path.
Tell them to move the gobs of data files to somewhere else, like to
another drive: another partition on the same disk as for the OS
partition or to a separate disk or even to external storage, like USB
drives. In the registry or with a tweaker (which merely modifies the
registry), you can redefine the My Documents folder to be located
somewhere else. The OS+app partition where is the roaming profile
should really be only for the OS and apps. Data should be stored on
different storage media -- unless the user wants that backed up in their
roaming profile (but then, in a corporate environment, they should
already be running scheduled backups).

Tell the user to stop carrying around a carton of mittens so he can
decide which one to wear in the winter. Have him tote one pair of
mittens and keep the rest in a separate carton. Have him store his data
like he stores his clothes: he doesn't tote all his clothes around with
him but keeps the other mass of clothing at home. Find another home for
all those data files. If he cannot stand not having the image of toting
his complete wardrobe with him at all times, lie to him and redirect the
My Documents and other special *data* subfolders under his profile so
they are physically stored elsewhere. For example, right-click on the
My Documents folder, select Properties, go to the Location tab, and
select to Move the folder to another location. As I recall, a junction
point will be placed where was the original My Documents folder so it
looks like the folder is still there; however, any files created,
modified, or deleted in that pseudo-folder will actually be performed in
the new physical location. The junction is needed because some programs
will default to using the old My Documents folder; i.e., they are
hardcoded into the folder's path instead of using the registry entries
defining where are those special document folders. The junction
redirect the ignorant programs (using hardcoded paths) so the files
still end up in the new location.

In message , Java Jive
writes:
On Mon, 25 Sep 2017 19:49:04 +0100, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"
wrote:

To me, "profile" - in this sense - means, more or less, a list of things
(mostly configuration files, though could e. g. include the desktop) to
be copied. _Not_ a set of _folders_ to be copied. Such a set of
_folders_ might be synced, ideally in background, once the user is
logged in, but this should _not_ happen as part of the login process
(other than perhaps _starting_ the sync utility).

That is your own interpretation of it; to most others, and to
Microsoft, a user's profile is everything under
Legacy: C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME
Now: C:\Users\USERNAME

Not just mine - it's based on what I can remember happened at my
previous employer. I'd not come across the term "profile" outside things
like Firefox before then. That was a situation with mostly desktop
machines, and as I said, only a limited number of things was downloaded.
It did include the desktop, so those users who stored large files
actually on the desktop complained it took longer. (They didn't usually
do anything about it though!)

This will indeed include everything I've mentioned above, such as user
downloads, visual studio projects including all the source and build
files, etc, often also software automatic update downloads as well,
though sometimes they are downloaded to elsewhere on C:, perhaps the
%Windir%/Temp directory.

Ah. At that employers, the IT department took complete control of
updates, issuing them as necessary. Users couldn't.

As in the link I gave, the first thing I do after installing Windows
or any new software is configure it to save important data on the D:

Me too.

At that employers, we were encouraged to use network storage by default,
and not store _anything_ on the machine's local hard drive. Word etc.
were set up to do so by default - the "My" folders were all on the
network drive, I think. (Each user had their own folder thereon, which
appeared to them as drive H:.)

drive, and the default C: drive profile only ever contains temporary
files, etc. and is only backed up when I take a Ghost image of the
system disk every month or so, whereas the D: drive is backed up most
evenings before I go to bed, using DeltaCopy, a CygWin version of the
Linux rsync program, which backs up only changed files.

For my own purposes here, I use SyncToy, which can be configured to work
like that.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

.... behaving morally does not require religious adherence. - The Right Rev
Nigel McCulloch\Bishop of Manchester (Radio Times, 24-30 September 2011

Il giorno Mon 25 Sep 2017 10:49:47p, *Java Jive* ha inviato su
alt.windows7.general il messaggio
. Vediamo cosa ha scritto:

to
Microsoft, a user's profile is everything under
Legacy: C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME
Now: C:\Users\USERNAME

This will indeed include everything I've mentioned above, such as user
downloads, visual studio projects including all the source and build
files, etc, often also software automatic update downloads as well,
though sometimes they are downloaded to elsewhere on C:, perhaps the
%Windir%/Temp directory.


that's the point
on the server, in the folder c:\profiles, I can see an exact copy of the
local "profile"

"profile" is everything is in the user folder, rubbish included

once I asked, if possible, to reduce the data flow through the network and
they came out with a sort of "virtual folders", i.e. leaving the Outlook
folder on the server itself and configuring the local outlook to get its
PST file directly from the new location
actually I didn't get the reason, since the data flow from/to the server
was removed from login/logout, ok, but the rest of the day all the queries
on the PST file had to be performed through the LAN

they told ma also that working this way the user didn't need a local backup
since all his data were on the server and the server makes the backup
if the user computer burns, he just logs into a different pc in the domain
and gets back all his data and configurations

--
/-\ /\/\ /\/\ /-\ /\/\ /\/\ /-\ T /-\
-=- -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- - -=-
http://www.bb2002.it
............ [ al lavoro ] ...........

Il giorno Tue 26 Sep 2017 04:36:14a, *VanguardLH* ha inviato su
alt.windows7.general il messaggio .
Vediamo cosa ha scritto:

So your user is in a domain that is setup for roaming profiles.
Configuring the host to NOT use a roaming profile when connecting to the
corporate domain means not having to download or save it over the
network.



yes, I think you got to the point

since the user doesn't make any backup (his data are also on the server and
the server makes backup), if I disable the "roaming" profile I need to
configure a separate backup, i.e. to the NAS, that will run in background
or during lunchtime, or after work (switching off the computer at the end).

--
/-\ /\/\ /\/\ /-\ /\/\ /\/\ /-\ T /-\
-=- -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- - -=-
http://www.bb2002.it
............ [ al lavoro ] ...........

In message 12,
Ammammata writes:
[]
that's the point
on the server, in the folder c:\profiles, I can see an exact copy of the
local "profile"

When you say "on the server, in the folder c:\profiles", I presume you
are physically going to the server computer and using it. In our case, I
don't even know where the server was - I think it was actually in the
town down the hill. When I looked at the server from an ordinary user
machine I'd logged into, it of course did not appear as C: anything; it
appeared either as \\servername\userfolder, or (because this had been
set up to point to it) as H:.

"profile" is everything is in the user folder, rubbish included

Ah. We had the user space on the server (known informally as "your H:
drive", since that's what it looked like to a user who didn't know
anything about "map network drive" etc.). We also had a SEPARATE
"profile server"; the computers were set up so that, when a user logged
in, their local computer and the profile server interacted, to give them
a local copy of all their settings, desktop, and so on - but NOT their
data files (Word documents, Powerpoint presentations, downloads, videos,
Excel spreadsheets ...). Once login was complete (the user couldn't do
much until it was), the user didn't really have visibility of the
"profile server". When they logged out, the two computers again
interacted to save the user's profile, in case s/he had made any changes
to it. It DIDN'T save their working files - because those would be on
the (main as opposed to profile) server anyway; people weren't supposed
to use their local drive AT ALL during the working day. "My Documents"
and other such were set up to point to their space "on the H: drive" by
default.

This was for all users, mainly desktop ones. IN ADDITION, for those
using laptops, who might leave for some time (salesmen on the road,
people going to conferences, etc.), there was some sort of synching
mechanism that _did_ give them a "local copy" of their H: space; when
they next reconnected to the network, some automatic mechanism synched
things back, so that the two copies were identical. I do know that those
who'd not been connected to the network for a long time did experience
slow performance for a while when they did reconnect: I don't think that
affected their login as such though - it just happened as a background
(but fairly high priority, so the slowdown was noticeable) task _after_
login was complete.

once I asked, if possible, to reduce the data flow through the network and
they came out with a sort of "virtual folders", i.e. leaving the Outlook
folder on the server itself and configuring the local outlook to get its
PST file directly from the new location
actually I didn't get the reason, since the data flow from/to the server
was removed from login/logout, ok, but the rest of the day all the queries
on the PST file had to be performed through the LAN

(I _think_ we had moved to something other than PST files. From what I
remember, MS had stated they wouldn't support PST file usage after some
date - which was several years ago - although they didn't stop you
continuing to use them at your own risk.)

they told ma also that working this way the user didn't need a local backup
since all his data were on the server and the server makes the backup

That's exactly it. (The server was backed up frequently - at least
daily, I think more often - but that wasn't the responsibility of the
users.)

if the user computer burns, he just logs into a different pc in the domain
and gets back all his data and configurations

Well, in our case he didn't "get back" his data - he got back _access
to_ it. No local copy! (Except for those likely to go off-site for a
while, see above.) Yes, he got back his _configurations_, but from a
_different_ server, one whose sole purpose was the storage of those -
and that's what _we_ called a "profile". (Well, I say sole purpose - I
think it probably handled all aspects of controlling logins - security
and so on - and thus _access to_ the main server.)

Users - other than the IT department - didn't have access to each
other's user space on the server. If they needed to collaborate, an area
was set up on the server to which all those on that project had access -
called, not surprisingly, the "project folder", as well as other names.
The project leader controlled who had access to the project area (or at
least was authorised to tell the IT department who was and wasn't).
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

"There are a great many people in the country today who, through no fault of
their own, are sane." - Monty Python's Flying Circus

In message , Wolf K
writes:
[]
It sounds like they want to use the workstation as secondary backup. I

If they're even that together in their thinking.

mean why else insist on syncing its data with the server's at the end
of the shift? But there's no need to have the poor chap wait while
that's done. Just do it in the background as the workstation's data

Indeed. Ideally, when no-one's using it (overnight, for example, unless
the place does shift working).

changes. The company should have a policy on how many generations of
working data to keep.

Actually, there's no need for anything on his workstation except his
profile and copies of working data. They should have a primary back-up
of the data anyhow, regardless of what's kept on the workstations.

Ah, you are using the term "profile" as I use it (settings and
configurations). At least one person in this thread is using it as
interchangeable with "user space", or at least I think he is.

Sounds like a badly designed network and backup/sync policy to me.

Yup! (Or not "designed" at all.)
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

age. fac ut gaudeam.