How to Create Roaming Profile on Windows Server 2012

Roaming profiles users are able to get their desktop environment on every computer which is client of a domain controller. Configuration of Roaming User Profiles involves 2 processes: Sharing a Folder and Configuring Domain Users’ Profile page.

1. Create a Share a Folder

  1. Log on to the domain controller as Admin.
  2. Create a folder on drive C: or any available volume and name it Profiles.
  3. Share the Profiles folder right-click on it and from the context menu select Properties.
  4. On the Properties page go to Sharing tab and select Share this folder radio button.
  5. Leave the default share name intact and click on Permissions button.
  6. Make sure that in Share Permissions window under Groups or user names frame Everyone group is selected and in Permissions to Everyone frame under Allow column check the checkbox opposite to Full Control option.
  7. Click on Ok button on all windows to accept and confirm your settings.

2. Configuring Domain Users’ Profile.

  1. Click on Start button and go to Administrative Tools.
  2. From Administrative Tools sub-menu click on Active Directory Users and Computers snap-in.
  3. When opened, from the left pane expand the domain name (domain name.com in this case) and from the list select Users container.
  4. From the right pane right click on the user name for which you want to configure roaming profile and select Properties. You can also select multiple users by pressing Ctrl key while selecting users. This will enable you to configure roaming user profile for multiple users in a single session.
  5. In the Properties window go to Profile tab.
  6. In the Profile path text box type the Universal Naming Convention (UNC) path for the shared folder. In this example it would be 192.168.1.118ProfilesUSERNAME where 192.168.1.118 is the computer name, USERNAME will be replaced with the name of the user account

Once done with the above configuration click on Ok button to accept and confirm the settings.Next time when the user will log on to the domain his profile will be saved in a sub folder which will be created under Profiles shared folder. Name of the sub folder will be the name of the user for whom roaming profile is configured. Every time the user will use a domain client computer to log on his profile will be downloaded for this sub folder and will be saved back in this folder when the user will log off.

Video Tutorial:

Miguel

I started this tech blog back in 2011 as a place to write down processes I took to fix my client systems and network. Now I write some tips and tricks to help others with the tech issues that one might encounter.

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