User Profile and Home Directory Behavior with Terminal Services

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This article was previously published under Q246132

SUMMARY

This article describes how User Profiles and Home Directories function in a Windows 2000 Terminal Services environment. The differences between logging in using the Terminal Services Client software versus logging in at the console of a server is also outlined.

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Logging in Using the Terminal Services Client Software

If a Terminal Services Profile is specified, this path is used. If this path is not specified, but a User Profile is specified, this path is used. If neither path is specified, an existing local profile is used, or one is created in the %SYSTEMDRIVE%\Documents and Settings\%username% folder. If both a Terminal Services Profile and a User Profile are specified, the Terminal Services Profile is used.

If a Terminal Services Home Directory is specified, this path is used. If this path is not specified, but a Home Folder is specified, this path is used. If neither path is specified, the Home Directory is set to the %SYSTEMDRIVE%\Documents and Settings\%username% folder. If both a Terminal Services Home Directory and User Home Folder are specified, the Terminal Services Home Directory is used.

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Logging into the Console of a Server with Terminal Services Enabled

Terminal Services Profile and Terminal Services Home Directory are not used when you log on to the console. If a User Profile is specified, this path is used. If a User Profile is not specified, an existing local profile is used, or one is created in the %SYSTEMDRIVE%\Documents and Settings\%username% folder.

If a Home Folder is specified, this path is used. If this path is not specified, the Home Directory is set to use the %SYSTEMDRIVE%\Documents and Settings\%username% folder.

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