We're setting up a Windows 2003 domain next to roaming profiles for every user on 300 machines and 900 users (needs to be roaming). We hold a scale of software, some of which wishes to be installed in some rooms and not in others.
The problem is that although packages are shipping out correctly beside Active Directory and the shortcuts are installing correctly in the "All Users" folder (we can see them when logging on as Administrator), they aren't showing up for domain users.
We've have to remove explore access to the C: but this hasn't stopped anything else running and we know it's possible to enjoy both working.
Any thinking?
p.s. We can't create static links as different program sets are on different PCs
Answers:
Three potential issues.
1. You did not set up the roaming profile structure properly in Active Directory. There are partly a dozen mistakes you can sort here. To tryout, create a examination user near something extremely rare on his desktop (a odd statue, for example). If this individual profile all your own appears at multiple computers for impossible to tell apart user when he first logs on, after your AD roaming profile structure is nouns. Remember, the "adjectives users" configuration on local machines simply will not apply to domain users if you're using roaming profiles. It pulls the user's profile directly from AD on the server, ignore the local mechanism. You can put anything you want into "adjectives users". The roaming profiles simply don't catch sight of.
2. You hold a group policy issue. If you're trying to push out specific software applications for specific computers, regardless of user, or applying specific applications to specific users, this is best done through group policy, not through AD. Use AD to set up your organizational structure (domains, OU's, sites, etc.), consequently apply group policy to the structure. From what I'm reading between the lines in your grill, what you're trying to do simply can't be done only through profiles surrounded by AD. You HAVE to use group policy.
3. Since you've played near the directory security/access structure of your server's C drive, it's possible you've constrained access to a critical folder for which access is required. But you are correct. Done right, it is possible to own both working. Since I assume you hold some skill at this, I assume this is the lowest possible feasible explanation.
weird