User Profiles

On computers running Windows NT Workstation or Windows NT Server, user profiles automatically create and maintain the desktop settings for each user's work environment on the local computer. Although you can save user profiles in shared network directories on Advanced Server/9000 computers, user profiles have no effect on computers running Advanced Server nor on client computers running MS-DOS.

User profiles can be used on computers running Windows 95 but they must be enabled before they are available.

You can create and modify user profiles using the tools provided in Windows NT and Windows 95.

In Windows NT and Windows 95, a user profile is created for each user when the user logs on to a computer for the first time. User profiles provide the following advantages to users:

When users log on to their workstations, they receive the desktop settings as they existed when they logged off.
Several users can use the same computer, with each receiving a customized desktop when they log on.
User profiles can be stored on a server so that user profiles can follow users to any computer running the Windows NT or Advanced Server on the network. These are called roaming user profiles.

As an administrative tool, user profiles provide the following options:

You can create customized user profiles and assign them to users to provide consistent work environments that are appropriate to their tasks.
You can specify common group settings for all users.
You can assign mandatory user profiles to prevent users from changing any desktop settings.

For more information about user profiles on computers running Windows NT or Windows 95, see Windows NT Server Concepts and Planning.

User Profiles

Technical documentation

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