Folder redirection - what's it about?

In a Microsoft Windows network environment you can either store users 'profile' on their local pc or on a remote pc. a profile is where all you settings are stored, Office settings, Internet Explorer settings etc. It is also where your 'My Documents' is along with any sub directories you may have within it. Basically, your profile is the part of the operating system that is controlled by you, it contains all the options you may choose to make your working environment individual and how you want it.

With local profile storing, all these settings are stored on the local hard disk. With remote profiles (or correctly termed, roaming profiles), when you log off a Windows pc, your profile is copied onto a remote pc so that when you log in again, the profile is copied back (temporarily) allowing you to work. This does mean that you can log onto any Windows pc on the same network and your environment will look and feel the same where ever you work. If you used local profiles, each pc would hold its own separate copy of your settings etc inevitably making each one different. Roaming profiles gives you the flexibility to move around an establishment while retaining one setup.

In DAMTP we've used this idea of roaming profiles but tailored it to work with our existing facilities. Instead of copying your complete profile back and forwards every time you log on and off, we simply re-direct some parts of your profile to your N: drive. For example, My Documents is relocated to N:\private\My_Documents. This means that you can view any files within My Documents from a UNIX box if you should wish to as it's on your N: drive\UNIX file space. It's also within your \private folder so only you can see these files.

The following folders are re-directed:

  • My Documents

  • My Pictures

  • Desktop

  • Favorites

  • Personal

  • Recent

  • Templates

When you log into a Windows pc you've not used before, it first checks to see if you've logged into it before. If not, it sets up the re-direction and then logs you off. Before logging you off, it does pop up a message box informing redirection has been setup.

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When you log in again after the re-direct has been setup, you can carry on working as normal.

If you don't have an N:\private folder, it can't setup the redirection and another message box appears informing you of this. If this happens, email help@damtp asking for this to be setup for you. You can set it up yourself by making a directory called private in you home directory and chmod'ing it to 700.

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