How to assign a mandatory user profile in Windows XP

This article describes how to assign a mandatory user profile in Windows XP.

Note: When a user with an assigned a mandatory profile logs off from a computer, any changes to the profile are lost.

Open and Configure the User Profile Name Form

To complete these procedures successfully, log on as an administrator or as a member of the Administrators group. If your computer is connected to a network, you may be unable to complete this procedure due to network policy settings.

1. Click Start menu, click Control Panel, click Performance and Maintenance, and then click Administrative Tools.
2. Double-click Computer Management.
3. In the console tree, double-click Computer Management, double-click System Tools, double-click Local Users and Groups, and then double-click Users.
4. Right-click the user account that you want to modify, and then click Properties.
5. On the Profile tab, in the profile path, type the location of the profile that you want to assign in the following format
   \\ServerName\ProfilesShareName\UserProfileName
   where:
   • ServerName is the name of the computer where the profiles are stored.
   • ProfilesShareName is the share name where the profiles are stored.
   • UserProfileName is the specific folder for this user profile.

Configure the Network Folder

Properly configure the network folder that you specified in step 5 in the "Open and Configure the User Profile Name Form" section, in which you opened the user profile form:

1. Double-click the Computer Management on the computer that will contain the user profile folder.
2. Select Shared Folders to create a shared folder on the appropriate server
3. Grant full control to the Everyone group

Assign a Mandatory User Profile

To assign a mandatory user profile, you must also copy a preconfigured user profile to the location that you specified in the last step opening the user profile form.

1. Click Start, click Control Panel, click Performance and Maintenance, and then click System.
2. On the Advanced tab, under User Profiles, click Settings.
3. Click the profile that you want to copy, and then click Copy To.
4. In the Copy profile to box, type or browse to the path of the folder that you specified in step 5 in the "Open and Configure the User Profile Name Form" section, and then click OK.
5. Confirm that the user that is specified under Permitted to use is the user who will be accessing this profile. If more than one user will be using the copied user profile, you need to select a group that contains all of these users, such as the Everyone group.
6. Click OK.
7. Rename Ntuser.dat to Ntuser.man.

Troubleshooting

If users will only log on to Windows 2000- or Windows XP-based computers, the user profile path should point to a folder name and the path should not include either the .usr or .man extension. If the folder that you specify in the user profile path does not exist (in step 5 in the "Open and Configure the User Profile Name Form" section), it is automatically created the first time that the user logs on.