Environment Variables

Home Directory

A user's home directory is a directory that is accessible to the user and contains files and programs for that user. When a user logs on at a workstation running Windows NT, a connection is made automatically to that user's home directory; this becomes that user's default directory for the File Open and Save As dialog boxes, for the command prompt, and for all applications that do not have a working directory defined.

Home directories make it easier for an administrator to back up user files and delete user accounts because they can collect all of a user's files in one location.

On a Windows NT Workstation computer, the default home directory is \uSERS\DEFAULT on the user's local drive where Windows NT is installed. With User Manager for Domains you can change this to a shared network directory or to another local directory on the user's workstation. You should assign network home directories when administering user accounts in a domain.

If you specify a network path for the home directory, in most cases User Manager for Domains automatically creates that home directory. In order for users to access their home directories, appropriate permissions must be granted

	NOTE: If an Advanced Server domain user also has an HP-UX system account, it may be useful for the administrator to make the network home directory the same as the HP-UX system home directory.

%USERNAME% in User Profile and Home Directory Paths

You can substitute the %USERNAME% variable for the last subdirectory in the path in the User Profile Path and the Home Directory boxes. The system then substitutes the user name of the user account. This is useful when multiple user accounts are selected.

For example, if eight user accounts are selected, in the User Profile Path you could type \\terrier\users\%username%.usr; under Home Directory you would select the Connect option, specify a drive letter of K, select the To box, and type \\terrier\home\%username%. When you choose the OK button and the User Environment Profile is saved, for each user account the actual user name will be substituted for the %USERNAME% entry.

Copying the User Environment Profile

When a user account is copied, the logon script name is copied exactly. When a user account is copied, the home directory is copied in one of two ways. If the last subdirectory of the home directory path of the user account being copied is the same as the user's name, then the new account substitutes the new user's name when copying the home directory path. Otherwise, the home directory path is copied exactly. The following are two examples: