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User Profile Wizard FAQs
What does User Profile Wizard do?
User Profile Wizard is a workstation migration tool that
will join your machine to a domain, and share your original
user profile with your new domain logon so that you can
carry on using all your existing data, and keep the same
settings that you’ve always had.
By using the User Profile Wizard command line interface and
the User Profile
Wizard Deployment Kit you
can build a scalable, enterprise solution to migrate tens of
thousands of workstations.
What's a profile?
A profile is where Windows keeps all your personal data and
settings. Your profile is where your "My Documents", "My
Pictures" and "My Music" files are stored, and where your
Internet favorites and cookies are kept. Windows keeps track
of your personal settings in your profile, like your desktop
wallpaper and the lists of documents you've recently opened.
Most of the changes you make to personalize your
applications are also kept in your profile, as well as files
like dictionaries and playlists.
Why share profiles when migrating to a Windows domain?
As far as Windows is concerned, when you logon to your
machine using your domain logon you are a completely
different person. Because Windows thinks you're a different
person, it sets up a new profile for you and you lose all
your personal settings. Not only that, unless your new
domain account has Administrator rights on your machine, you
lose access to all your data as well. What the User Profile
Wizard allows you to do is share your original profile with
your new domain logon so that you can carry on using your
old settings. This is a major benefit to your users.
Installing a Windows Domain infrastructure is a major
undertaking but, believe it or not, your end users won't be
as excited about it as you: all they want to do is get on
with their jobs. Using the User Profile Wizard will
significantly reduce disruption to your business.
Why not make everyone an Administrator?
Running as an Administrator would give you access to your
old documents, but you would still lose your personalized
settings. More importantly, always using your machine with
an Administrator account is a bad idea. Making everyone in
your organization an Administrator is a seriously bad idea.
There are major security risks with this sort of setup. For
example, any executable file sent in an email, or any
component installed from a web page has complete access to
your machine and the data on it. Not only that, but making
everyone an administrator is a really good way of pushing up
your IT support costs.
Why not just copy the data from the old profile?
Well, you could. But that is going to be a time consuming,
labor intensive, not say costly operation. What data do you
copy? Even if you copy all your files, what about the
configuration information that Windows stores in the
registry? Using the User Profile Wizard is just much easier
and much less disruptive.
Will I have to visit every machine on my network to run
the Wizard?
Absolutely not. The User Profile Wizard has two distinct
modes of operation. You can run the Wizard in graphical mode
like all the other Wizards you're familiar with in Windows,
but you can also run the User Profile Wizard from a command
line. This means that the User Profile Wizard can be run
from a VB or Java Script, or from a batch file. The
User Profile
Wizard Deployment Kit
can generate a VBScript based on your specific
migration requirements. Running the
User Profile Wizard from a command line is only possible if
you have the Corporate Edition of the User Profile Wizard
What version of Windows does the User Profile Wizard run
on?
The User Profile Wizard runs on Windows 2000, Windows XP and
Windows Vista.
Is there a version for Windows NT 4.0 workstations?
There is a version of the Corporate Edition of User Profile
Wizard available for Windows NT 4.0 workstations. Corporate
customers and organizations should contact
sales@ForensiT.com for more
information.
What's the difference between User Profile Wizard
and User Profile Manager?
User Profile Wizard is primarily a migration tool: it allows
an existing profile to be used by a different user account.
However, if a profile needs to be used regularly by more
than one user account, we would recommend that you consider our
User
Profile Manager product.
And the User Profile Wizard is FREE?
The User Profile Wizard is free for personal use, subject to
the terms of the
End User Agreement. To request an evaluation copy
of the Corporate Edition, and for pricing information,
corporate customers and organizations should contact
sales@ForensiT.com. Your
organization will pay no more than $2 per seat for the
Corporate Edition.
Walk me through what I have to do
Click here
to see the walkthrough.
What if I have a problem?
Regrettably there is no support available for the free
version of the wizard. The software has been extensively
tested, and we have done our best to make it error free.
However, if you do come across any bugs or limitations we
would really like to know about them. Email us at
support@ForensiT.com if you
do.
What are the security implications of running the User
Profile Wizard?
By running the Wizard you are giving someone access to
someone else's data and settings. This means that they will
be able to read the person's documents, look at the person's
Internet favorites and history, see their lists of recent
files, etc. If two (or more) people are sharing a profile
then they will all see the same data when they log on. Note
that this only applies to data local to the machine: data on
other machines, like servers, will still not be accessible.
However, with the exception of updating group memberships
when joining a domain, this is as much (or as little) as the
User Profile Wizard does: it does not change any other
security settings.
Can I use the User Profile Wizard with Fast User
Switching?
You can still use the User Profile Wizard to share a
profile. However, Windows cannot load the same profile for
two users at the same time. This means that if you attempt
to switch to a user account that shares a profile with an
account that is already logged on, you will get an error. In
this situation Windows will create a temporary profile for
the account.
Can I use the User Profile Wizard with Roaming Profiles?
The Corporate Edition of User Profile Wizard allows you to
share the local copy of a roaming profile between accounts,
or migrate the profile to a new domain account. The free
version of User Profile Wizard does not support roaming
profiles.
I've run the Wizard to join a domain and now I'm getting
"Access denied" when I try to open some of my folders.
The wizard does not "reflow" rights on profile folders, nor
does it scan your machine for explicitly defined permissions
on files or folders. This means that any specific user
rights assignments that you have made will remain in place.
Remember, if you're logging onto a machine with a domain
account you're a different person as far as Windows is
concerned, and if your domain account hasn't been given any
rights to a particular folder, running the User Profile
Wizard won't change anything
What about my encrypted data?
The user account that has been given access to a profile
will not be able to read any files or folders encrypted by
the original owner of that profile. If you're migrating to a
Windows domain and you want your new domain account to
access your encrypted data, you will need to decrypt your
data using your old account, and then encrypt it again when
you logon with your new account.
What about group membership?
When migrating to a domain, the User Profile Wizard
automatically adds the account that will share the profile
to the same groups as the local account whose profile you
want share. This is to help in the migration to the domain.
So for example, if your local machine account is a member of
the "Power Users" group, the User Profile Wizard will add
your domain account to the "Power Users" group. If you are
sharing profiles between local accounts, group membership is
not effected.
What's the Command Line mode for?
User Profile Wizard Corporate Edition has a powerful command
line interface which, together with the
User Profile
Wizard Deployment Kit, will enable you to automate an
enterprise-wide migration of your workstations to a new
domain.
How do I use the Command Line?
Please refer to the
User Profile Wizard User Guide for
details on using the Command Line interface.
So Who's Using User Profile Wizard?
User Profile Wizard has already been used by hundreds of
companies and organizations in over 30 countries to migrate
hundreds
of thousands of Workstations, and was named as one of the
"Products of the Year" by TechTarget's SearchWin2000.com in
2005. To read how InfraScience migrated over 10,000
workstations with User Profile Wizard click
here.
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