Re: Vista & SBS - Domain User Profile folder name

Brian P Fielding wrote:
> For this test I was using Vista RC1 build 5728 and SBS 2003 SP1 (This
> issue occurs for both Vista x86 and x64) - it also applied to the
> beta2 build of Vista.
>
> I setup a Vista User to our SBS 2003 Domain using the connectcomputer
> wizard. It all went well but . . .
>
> The user's profile folder setup on the Server was "UserName.V2"
> instead of the expected "UserName" .
>
> Additionally a network lnk has been setup on the Vista User but this
> has been set to \\ServerName\Users\UserName (without the .V2).
> I tried changing this to \\ServerName\Users\UserName.V2 but it
> reset it.
> The Username.V2 folder is the one used by Vista.
>
> Is it intended that Vista User profile folders will have the .V2 suffix
> and that the link will be changed to include the .V2 or is
> the .V2 a temporary feature.
>
> Thanks
> Brian

In playing with Vista and SBS 2003 SP1 this is what I have found so far. I
have tried it with several builds of Vista up to and including 5600. I
haven't tried it with 5728 yet.

Install Vista, name the computer whatever you want except what it will be
named once joined to the domain. Same with the administrator user you create
during the Vista install. Do not use the same name as a domain account. Once
Vista is installed and working you can join it to the SBS domain as follows.
Create a computer and a user (or you can use an existing user) via the SBS
wizards. Boot the Vista computer to Safe mode with networking and logon as
the local administrator user you created during the install. Make sure all
the TCP/IP settings are correct particularly DNS. Run the connectcomputer
wizard but don't try to migrate any profiles or assign a user. Do pick the
computer you created with the wizard. This will join the computer to the
domain. You may receive a UAC prompt or an error during the first reboot but
it doesn't seem to affect the results. Once the SBS_NETSETUP account has
done it's thing and the computer reboots logon with the domain account you
wish to use on this computer. This will create the profile but you will get
a UAC prompt and possibly another prompt for domain credentials as this user
is not a member of the local admins and the local admin account is not a
member of the domain. You can then logoff and log back on with a domain
admin account and add the user to the local admins, or modify the logon
script for the user so it doesn't run SBS_LOGON.BAT, or live with it as is.
I don't like to run with local admin privileges so I added another domain
account that does have local admin privileges. When I logon as the standard
user at the first UAC prompt for permission to run the SBS logon script I
specify the domain account with the local admin privileges. This way I don't
get the second prompt for network credentials. A bit of a kludge but this
allows you to keep the standard SBS logon script for when the user logs onto
a different computer. Using this method does seem to work better than
manually joining the computer to the domain. I was having intermittent
problems with group policy when I joined the Vista computer manually to the
domain.

--
Kerry
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User
http://www.vistahelp.ca

On my test network I don't have the profiles redirected to the server.
They're on the local machines, all two of them :-)

The local profiles don't have a suffix unless the same user name exists
locally. Then it has the domain name suffix.

I wouldn't worry too much about this. I'm assuming/hoping there will be an
update for SBS that will fix the problems with Vista joining the domain
shortly after Vista is released.

--
Kerry
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User
http://www.vistahelp.ca


Brian P Fielding wrote:
> Thanks for the modified approach to joining computers to the domain
> and setting up users.
>
> Having setup user profiles in this manner with Vista what is the
> profile folder name on the server ? Basically, does it have a .V2 suffix
> ?
> Thanks
> Brian
>
> "Kerry Brown" <*a*m> wrote in message
> news:...
>> Brian P Fielding wrote:
>>> For this test I was using Vista RC1 build 5728 and SBS 2003 SP1
>>> (This issue occurs for both Vista x86 and x64) - it also applied to
>>> the beta2 build of Vista.
>>>
>>> I setup a Vista User to our SBS 2003 Domain using the
>>> connectcomputer wizard. It all went well but . . .
>>>
>>> The user's profile folder setup on the Server was "UserName.V2"
>>> instead of the expected "UserName" .
>>>
>>> Additionally a network lnk has been setup on the Vista User but this
>>> has been set to \\ServerName\Users\UserName (without the .V2).
>>> I tried changing this to \\ServerName\Users\UserName.V2 but it
>>> reset it.
>>> The Username.V2 folder is the one used by Vista.
>>>
>>> Is it intended that Vista User profile folders will have the .V2
>>> suffix and that the link will be changed to include the .V2 or is
>>> the .V2 a temporary feature.
>>>
>>> Thanks
>>> Brian
>>
>> In playing with Vista and SBS 2003 SP1 this is what I have found so
>> far. I have tried it with several builds of Vista up to and
>> including 5600. I haven't tried it with 5728 yet.
>>
>> Install Vista, name the computer whatever you want except what it
>> will be named once joined to the domain. Same with the administrator
>> user you create during the Vista install. Do not use the same name
>> as a domain account. Once Vista is installed and working you can
>> join it to the SBS domain as follows. Create a computer and a user
>> (or you can use an existing user) via the SBS wizards. Boot the
>> Vista computer to Safe mode with networking and logon as the local
>> administrator user you created during the install. Make sure all the
>> TCP/IP settings are correct particularly DNS. Run the
>> connectcomputer wizard but don't try to migrate any profiles or
>> assign a user. Do pick the computer you created with the wizard.
>> This will join the computer to the domain. You may receive a UAC
>> prompt or an error during the first reboot but it doesn't seem to
>> affect the results. Once the SBS_NETSETUP account has done it's
>> thing and the computer reboots logon with the domain account you
>> wish to use on this computer. This will create the profile but you
>> will get a UAC prompt and possibly another prompt for domain
>> credentials as this user is not a member of the local admins and the
>> local admin account is not a member of the domain. You can then
>> logoff and log back on with a domain admin account and add the user
>> to the local admins, or modify the logon script for the user so it
>> doesn't run SBS_LOGON.BAT, or live with it as is. I don't like to
>> run with local admin privileges so I added another domain account
>> that does have local admin privileges. When I logon as the standard
>> user at the first UAC prompt for permission to run the SBS logon
>> script I specify the domain account with the local admin privileges.
>> This way I don't get the second prompt for network credentials. A
>> bit of a kludge but this allows you to keep the standard SBS logon
>> script for when the user logs onto a different computer. Using this
>> method does seem to work better than manually joining the computer
>> to the domain. I was having intermittent problems with group policy
>> when I joined the Vista computer manually to the domain. --
>> Kerry
>> MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User
>> http://www.vistahelp.ca