The A+ Certification & PC Repair Handbook (Charles River Media Networking/Security)

In order to more efficiently organize Windows, Microsoft has created user profiles. Windows XP profiles are stored in a centralized location on the system drive. Profiles specify shortcuts, settings, retain ‘most recently used’ information, as well as storing My Documents and other common folders. By default, local user profiles are stored in C:\Documents and Settings\. Each folder under that folder is a user’s name, such as Administrator. In addition to your documents and settings, Internet Explorer history, cache, cookies, and Favorites are also stored here. There is a folder under your user name called Desktop that stores all of the shortcuts that will appear on your Desktop.

The ‘All Users’ profile provides system-wide settings and shortcuts that all users will receive. It can only be modified by the system Administrator. In contrast, the Default User profile only specifies default settings given to each newly created user. When a user is created, the contents of the Default User profile are copied to the new user’s profile folder to provide a template. Only the Administrator may edit the Default User profile.

The hidden folders Application Data and Local Settings under your user name folder is commonly where all Microsoft Internet programs store their information. Outlook and Outlook Express, Internet Explorer, and MSN/Windows Messenger all store data here, except for cookies and Favorites, which are found directly under your user name folder. Application Data stores credentials and certificates, while Local Settings stores a copy of the credentials, an icon cache, a ‘temp’ folder, your history, and Internet Explorer’s Temporary Internet Files. Desktop.ini, which you will find nearly everywhere, is a file that specifies the current look and settings of the given folder in Explorer, whether icons are shown as simply icons, Details, Thumbnails, or whether to show hidden files or system folders, and so forth. If a special icon is chosen for a folder, or if there is wallpaper applied, then it is stored in Desktop.ini as well.

When you log on to a domain controller with your user name, a roaming profile is copied from your network profile’s home directory to the local hard drive, and it is combined with the All Users’ profile. When you are done working, any changes made to your profile are saved back to the network profile’s home directory so that you may access your changes from any workstation. You can see or modify a list of profiles by right-clicking on My Computer, choosing Properties, navigating to the Advanced tab, and under the User Profiles section, click the Settings button. You will be able to change a roaming profile to a local profile (provided that there is a roaming profile for you), or copy and delete profiles from this screen. It will also list how large the profile is in megabytes, which is helpful if you are in a network environment with space limitations.

A ‘mandatory’ user profile is a roaming profile that is not updated when the user logs off. The system Administrator sets up a profile of specific settings and shortcuts that is delivered to a user or group of users. Only members of the Administrator group may change the mandatory profile, as it is designed to provide consistent or job-specific functionality to your profile.