How To Use Windows 95 and Windows 98 Roaming User Profiles with Windows 2000 Server

Windows 95 and Windows 98 clients support the use of roaming user profiles; however, they behave differently from the user profiles found in Windows NT 4 and Windows 2000. This article explains how to implement roaming user profiles for Windows 95 and Windows 98 clients connecting to a computer running Windows 2000 Server.

A more thorough explanation of Windows 95 and Windows 98 user profiles can be found in the resource kits.

Enabling User Profiles on a Local Computer After Setup

1. In Control Panel, double-click Passwords, and then click the User Profiles tab.
2. Click Users can customize their preferences and desktop settings. Select the options that you want under User profile settings, and then click OK.
   
   These options describe what should be included as part of the user profile.
3. Shut down and restart the computer.
4. Install the Microsoft Client for Microsoft Networks on the Windows 95 or Windows 98 computer.
5. Restart the computer.
6. In Control Panel, double-click Network, and then select Client for Microsoft Networks as the primary network logon client.
7. Select Client for Microsoft Networks in the list of installed network components, and then click Properties.
8. Click Log on to Windows NT domain, type the domain name, and then click OK.
9. Restart the computer.

Setting Up User Profiles on a Windows NT Network

Windows 98 does not use the Documents and Settings directory on a Windows 2000 server; that directory is used only for Windows 2000 profiles.

1. Create a folder that will be used as the user's home folder. (It is recommended that you create this folder on an NTFS volume.)
2. Assign the appropriate NTFS permissions.
3. Share the folder and assign appropriate share permissions.
4. Enter the Universal Naming Convention (UNC) path of the share in Home Folder box on the Profile tab of the user object within Active Directory Users and Computers.

When the user logs off, Windows 98 automatically places an updated copy of the user profile in the user's assigned home directory on the Windows 2000 network, in the following path: \\specified_server\user's home directory.

Because of the differences in the profiles between each operating system, store the roaming user profile for each operating system in its own Location. Having the profiles between Windows 9x and Operating Systems based on NT Technology is not supported and can lead to the corruption of said policies. Additionally, use caution when using roaming user profiles with users that logon to multiple machines simultaneously, as some profile settings may appear not to save based on which machine the user logs off last.