Windows 7 - Default Profile. How can I edit it?

[Roasted]

I work for a large public school district. We have been playing with Windows 7 and find that it may be a very solid product to use in our district... but there's a catch.

Businesses may be different, because typically there's only 1 user who users 1 system. However, in a school district, we have hundreds of students who use the library. Hundreds that use any of our computer labs. Hundreds that may take CADD, Business, Photoshop, or a series of other classes. As a result, our computer installs for each lab/school (elem/middle/high) vary by a lot.

The fix? Default profiles. They have been a blessing to use. Since we're using XP Pro SP3 in our district, it's easy to do. Set the profile up the way we need, desktop icons, program settings, printers, etc... copy to default, and BAM. Every student has the exact same stuff.

In order for Windows 7 to work in our environment... we need this... I tried Vista a few months ago for testing and I gave Vista the thumbs down for this exact reason. Windows 7 is looking to be a promising stepping stone for the future of Microsoft, so I'm sure it'll be here for quite a long time.

How can we edit the default profile? What's the process in copying the default profile over? How can I accomplish what I explained above with 7 that I do currently in XP?

I keep in close contact with several other school districts. Although the others are eyeballing 7, nobody is planning to act for at least 1 year into 7's release. However - I'm positive nobody in the school district system is going to touch it if the default profile situation can't be ironed out.

Any input? Thanks!

 

[logicearth]

Details are on step 9.
How to Sysyprep Windows 7 Machine / Copy Administrator to Default Profile | eHow.com

 

[Roasted]

What is this imaging they speak of? And WAIK?

I do not want to use any sort of Microsoft imaging solution. I have an imaging solution that is established and in place.

EDIT - I followed step 9 and 10 and that was it. All I did was copied "jason" and pasted it within the users folder. (Jason is the profile I want to use as default). Then I simply renamed Jason to Default.

I logged into a test account and sure enough I pulled the background, desktop icons, etc of the default profile I set up.

Is it really that easy? Why is it it was such a headache in Vista? Everybody I talked to was complaining about how cumbersome it was in Vista, yet I can't imagine it'd be that different.

Is doing the steps I did above all I need to do? Is this a positive solution? When I tried to do something similar in Vista, I kept getting corrupt profiles when it copied the default to a new account.

Thoughts?

Thanks for the help.

 

[Zidane24]

What is this imaging they speak of? And WAIK?

I do not want to use any sort of Microsoft imaging solution. I have an imaging solution that is established and in place.

EDIT - I followed step 9 and 10 and that was it. All I did was copied "jason" and pasted it within the users folder. (Jason is the profile I want to use as default). Then I simply renamed Jason to Default.

I logged into a test account and sure enough I pulled the background, desktop icons, etc of the default profile I set up.

Is it really that easy? Why is it it was such a headache in Vista? Everybody I talked to was complaining about how cumbersome it was in Vista, yet I can't imagine it'd be that different.

Is doing the steps I did above all I need to do? Is this a positive solution? When I tried to do something similar in Vista, I kept getting corrupt profiles when it copied the default to a new account.

Thoughts?

Thanks for the help.

lmao

Windows 7...yeah it really is that easy

I should copyright that slogan

 

[Zidane24]

Anyhow...

I don't have another computer to test but you could help the community by verifying if it does indeed work by copying the default profile to other computers...

 

[logicearth]

The imaging stuff, is so you could make a DVD or an installation material just like how you get Windows 7 from the store. It will install it in that matter, so if you do not have like hardware, conventional imaging won't work with that.

WAIK == Windows Automated Installation Kit, the name speaks for itself what it does.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Automated_Installation_Kit

 

[Roasted]

What is this imaging they speak of? And WAIK?

I do not want to use any sort of Microsoft imaging solution. I have an imaging solution that is established and in place.

EDIT - I followed step 9 and 10 and that was it. All I did was copied "jason" and pasted it within the users folder. (Jason is the profile I want to use as default). Then I simply renamed Jason to Default.

I logged into a test account and sure enough I pulled the background, desktop icons, etc of the default profile I set up.

Is it really that easy? Why is it it was such a headache in Vista? Everybody I talked to was complaining about how cumbersome it was in Vista, yet I can't imagine it'd be that different.

Is doing the steps I did above all I need to do? Is this a positive solution? When I tried to do something similar in Vista, I kept getting corrupt profiles when it copied the default to a new account.

Thoughts?

Thanks for the help.

lmao

Windows 7...yeah it really is that easy

I should copyright that slogan

Sorry if what I said was comical. I've worked with Windows products for quite a long time, and I can't say I've ever really experienced something working without issue.

So far, so good. Windows 7 just locked up on my spare rig as I was setting it up to try the profile thing. Windows 7 in my Ubuntu VM worked though, but I'd rather see it on a stand-alone machine too.

 

[Roasted]

The imaging stuff, is so you could make a DVD or an installation material just like how you get Windows 7 from the store. It will install it in that matter, so if you do not have like hardware, conventional imaging won't work with that.

WAIK == Windows Automated Installation Kit, the name speaks for itself what it does.
Windows Automated Installation Kit - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I understand sysprep makes an image ready for whatever machine, and actually if you sysprep an image (to my knowledge) you CAN use any imaging solution you want without issue. I know several people who have done this, but they've done this with XP so I can't really speak for Vista/7 in this regard.

 

[Zidane24]

What is this imaging they speak of? And WAIK?

I do not want to use any sort of Microsoft imaging solution. I have an imaging solution that is established and in place.

EDIT - I followed step 9 and 10 and that was it. All I did was copied "jason" and pasted it within the users folder. (Jason is the profile I want to use as default). Then I simply renamed Jason to Default.

I logged into a test account and sure enough I pulled the background, desktop icons, etc of the default profile I set up.

Is it really that easy? Why is it it was such a headache in Vista? Everybody I talked to was complaining about how cumbersome it was in Vista, yet I can't imagine it'd be that different.

Is doing the steps I did above all I need to do? Is this a positive solution? When I tried to do something similar in Vista, I kept getting corrupt profiles when it copied the default to a new account.

Thoughts?

Thanks for the help.

lmao

Windows 7...yeah it really is that easy

I should copyright that slogan

Sorry if what I said was comical. I've worked with Windows products for quite a long time, and I can't say I've ever really experienced something working without issue.

So far, so good. Windows 7 just locked up on my spare rig as I was setting it up to try the profile thing. Windows 7 in my Ubuntu VM worked though, but I'd rather see it on a stand-alone machine too.

No I was only laughing at the fact that people are very surprised when they realize that Windows 7 is not as complicated as Windows Vista was

...but I realize your pain. Most of the time Windows is a pain to deal with (we all have our war stories) but Windows 7 is looking very bright.

 

[Roasted]

lmao

Windows 7...yeah it really is that easy

I should copyright that slogan

Sorry if what I said was comical. I've worked with Windows products for quite a long time, and I can't say I've ever really experienced something working without issue.

So far, so good. Windows 7 just locked up on my spare rig as I was setting it up to try the profile thing. Windows 7 in my Ubuntu VM worked though, but I'd rather see it on a stand-alone machine too.

No I was only laughing at the fact that people are very surprised when they realize that Windows 7 is not as complicated as Windows Vista was

...but I realize your pain. Most of the time Windows is a pain to deal with (we all have our war stories) but Windows 7 is looking very bright.

Some quick background info about me:

I'm a hardcore Linux fanatic and open source fan. I will preach Linux until the end of days. I find I can do more with less restrictions at no cost with Ubuntu (distro of choice).

However... I'm a realist. I give all platforms credit where they deserve it. And I can honestly say I'm just as excited for Windows 7 to come out as any other hardcore Windows fan - and that is WEIRD for me to say. Windows 7 is looking to be extremely solid.

I'm going to continue playing with this profile thing. We have over a thousand computers in the district, and we have a very efficient imaging solution and could probably knock out the better part of 1,000 machines in a matter of 2-3 days, so I have to make sure we nail it right the first time around.

Thanks guys for the input. I appreciate it!


EDIT - I ran into an issue... wondering if you guys could help... In XP land, we would frequently erase the profiles that students generate when they log in to cut back on hard drive space in use. I just tried that with my spare machine running Windows 7 Ultimate. I created 5 test accounts, logged in to them and pulled the default profile fine. I deleted 2 profiles and rebooted. When I log in to either of those particular 2 profiles, it comes back saying I am logged into a temporary profile and it will be deleted when I log out.

How can I prevent this? I want Windows to re-generate the profile from default if it doesn't already exist. This includes me deleting the profile. I want it to be re-generated if it needs to be.

Is this because the accounts I was testing were local accounts? If I take this rig to work and slap it on the domain would I get a better result?

 

[logicearth]

EDIT - I ran into an issue... wondering if you guys could help... In XP land, we would frequently erase the profiles that students generate when they log in to cut back on hard drive space in use. I just tried that with my spare machine running Windows 7 Ultimate. I created 5 test accounts, logged in to them and pulled the default profile fine. I deleted 2 profiles and rebooted. When I log in to either of those particular 2 profiles, it comes back saying I am logged into a temporary profile and it will be deleted when I log out.

How can I prevent this? I want Windows to re-generate the profile from default if it doesn't already exist. This includes me deleting the profile. I want it to be re-generated if it needs to be.

Is this because the accounts I was testing were local accounts? If I take this rig to work and slap it on the domain would I get a better result?

Is this close to what you are looking for: (For Vista but might work in 7 too.)
How to Delete Old User Profile Folders Automatically in Windows Vista - The Winhelponline Blog

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940017

Edit, BTW just deleteing C:\Users\[username] while does remove the profile, it doesn't remove the registry entries. It kinda confuses the profile service into thinking the profile is corrupted.

 

[Roasted]

I just tried to give this a shot again... I'm unsure of something. I just did a simple test on a new Windows 7 image and customized the start menu and changed the background picture. Then, like before, I renamed Default to Default.bak and copied the administrator profile and renamed that to Default.

Then, I rebooted and logged in to a new local account that I haven't been in before.

The custom start menu gets pulled over just fine. The background image is just... blank.

Is copying the default profile using this method the proper way to do it? Or is there a better way that I'm not aware of?

 

[hiattech]

default profile

I am curious if you resolved the default profile issue. The college I work for is looking to start teaching Windows 7 starting fall 2010 so, while I have a few months, I (like you) would like to get this ironed out before we go live. I have not tried the link yet from the first page, but plan to. If you have found out any other tricks for these pcs, please share. I also would like to have the system delete the profiles in a couple of our labs (like the library). Thanks!

 

[Roasted]

I have not resolved this.

In fact, I have 30 computers on my lap right now. The holdup? Default profiles.

It's extremely frustrating being in a school district with a Windows environment. We need default profiles. Period. Done. Over. We need them.

2k Pro can handle this.
XP Pro can handle this.
Mac OSX can handle this.
Ubuntu can handle this.

Why was it taken away in Vista? Why was it taken away in 7? I don't know how Microsoft expects us (school districts across the nation) to even CONSIDER their products if we can't set a default profile.

And please, spare me of roaming profiles - it's just not an option.

Quite a few months now I've been trying to figure this out, and I'm not a single step closer.

Sorry to vent frustration - but I really need to figure this out, or else Microsoft better plan on extending XP Pro's life span - again.

 

[hiattech]

Default Profiles

Sorry to hear that. I setup 10 computers for a test lab using the instructions listed in the 2nd post and part of it worked. It seems like it only carried about half of the settings over.

The other annoying thing is the public documents and the users documents. If they save something in public documents, it doesn't matter if it wipes their profile on a reboot, anything saved is still in public which can get big. I removed this from the user that I copied to the default, but if I remember right, this is one of the settings that didn't hold.

I'm trying to get into one of the XP to 7 migration classes they are offering so I can ask these questions. I hope they have some type of decent resolution. I'll let you know if I find anything out.

 

[Roasted]

Thank you. That would be a huge help if you could report back with anything you find - and I will do the same if I figure anything out.

I too have gotten mixed results. In some cases I can copy desktop icons, but not printers. Other times the background image doesn't copy over either.

I thought 7 was supposed to be more user friendly?

 

[Lordbob75]

I thought 7 was supposed to be more user friendly?

For you average user.....

Us techies will always have issues because of what we do (I do at least!).

Anyways, I might have a suggestion. I know MS has some tools to install 7 across many platforms at once (for businesses and such), but I have never used it, nor do I know much about it. If you could get one of those, perhaps it has a feature like this?

~Lordbob

 

[Roasted]

I thought 7 was supposed to be more user friendly?

For you average user.....

Us techies will always have issues because of what we do (I do at least!).

Anyways, I might have a suggestion. I know MS has some tools to install 7 across many platforms at once (for businesses and such), but I have never used it, nor do I know much about it. If you could get one of those, perhaps it has a feature like this?

~Lordbob

Are you referring to sysprep? If so, I've tried that route. Granted I know nothing about sysprep so I could be doing something wrong for all I know.

It's just frustrating as a tech in a huge school district having to manage this many computers. It makes me wonder why we stick with Windows. Why can't we just... copy the default profile? Like before? I know new versions progress and make changes, etc, but this is one of those DUUR DA DUUR things I don't think Microsoft should have messed with.

Sorry to keep with the sour attitude. But I just have a hard time realizing that we'll be on XP forever if this can't get fixed. I had high hopes for Windows 7.

 

[Lordbob75]

I thought 7 was supposed to be more user friendly?

For you average user.....

Us techies will always have issues because of what we do (I do at least!).

Anyways, I might have a suggestion. I know MS has some tools to install 7 across many platforms at once (for businesses and such), but I have never used it, nor do I know much about it. If you could get one of those, perhaps it has a feature like this?

~Lordbob

Are you referring to sysprep? If so, I've tried that route. Granted I know nothing about sysprep so I could be doing something wrong for all I know.

It's just frustrating as a tech in a huge school district having to manage this many computers. It makes me wonder why we stick with Windows. Why can't we just... copy the default profile? Like before? I know new versions progress and make changes, etc, but this is one of those DUUR DA DUUR things I don't think Microsoft should have messed with.

Sorry to keep with the sour attitude. But I just have a hard time realizing that we'll be on XP forever if this can't get fixed. I had high hopes for Windows 7.

Yeah, I feel your pain (my school still uses XP and 2000).

This may be something to ask on TechNet about.

~Lordbob

 

[Roasted]

Bump - Still needing a solution.