Roaming Profiles on Windows XP what to do?

December 14, 2006 2:00 PM

Looking for a secure Windows XP Roaming Profile alternative. What do you suggest?

Need to stop using roaming profiles in my agency. Data is getting spread about and there is a high chance of laptops and public machines (due to change in physical security) getting stolen. I don't want a workstation getting stolen that has the VP and HR director's documents on it.

There is a lot to the story, but rather keep it short. Please don't tell me that I should change physical security or anything of that sort. There's a lot that *should* be done, but fighting the power is for another day.

Thanks!

posted by bleucube to Computers & Internet (7 answers total)

Disable roaming profiles, and then have a folder where people can save their documents to the network? You can use some log-on scripts to make sure this is mapped automatically when users log on. You can then implement group policies to make sure temporary profile files are deleted on each log in (I think, I'm not a Windows guy.)
posted by Loto at 5:34 PM on December 14, 2006

What Loto said will work. To make things easier I would redirect My Documents to the network drive for them. I love when the PHB's start making decisions that effect security.
posted by saraswati at 6:00 PM on December 14, 2006

Have you thought about using some sort of managed disk encryption like EFS for user profiles?
posted by AaronRaphael at 6:27 PM on December 14, 2006

Response by poster: Looking into encryption, but thought it might be easier to auto delete profiles or something like that. Good suggestions so far!

We are a weird half Novell (file and print services) and half MS shop. Profiles are stored on NetWare and we push the GPO through Zenworks.
posted by bleucube at 6:43 PM on December 14, 2006

If you create network home folders for your users, then make My Documents a subfolder of the user's network home folder, then set up a logoff script that moves everything except shortcuts from the desktop to My Documents\Left Lying About, you shouldn't even need to turn off roaming profiles.
posted by flabdablet at 7:25 PM on December 14, 2006

In fact, your logoff script could even be more polite than that; it could move any non-shortcut from the desktop into My Documents\Unfiled, and then put a shortcut on the desktop pointing to the document or folder's new location. Users who are pointy-haired enough to leave sensitive stuff lying about on the desktop probably won't even notice the difference.
posted by flabdablet at 7:38 PM on December 14, 2006

Response by poster: Thanks again. Good point about not just moving mydocuments but also the desktop folder. Lots of people use the desktop as a storage bin.

Will let you know shortly what we do.
posted by bleucube at 5:25 AM on December 15, 2006