Learning Windows Server 2003, Second Edition

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Chapter 3: File, Print, and User Services

users’ account properties, and then tell them to log in to the machine that has

their desktop and appearance configured how they like it. Then, have them log

off, and their profile will automatically be copied.

• If you are creating a brand new user that has no profile data anywhere on your

network, you’ll probably want him or her (and any other new users you create in

the future) to automatically receive a default roaming profile. To do this, you

need only copy your baseline profile to \\<SERVERNAME>\SYSVOL\<yourdo-

mainname>\Scripts\Default User. Replace your server name and domain name as

appropriate. For example, in my case, I would configure my baseline profile to \\

MERCURY\SYSVOL\hasselltech.local\Scripts\Default User.

That’s all there is to basic roaming profile deployment. By setting up roaming user

profiles in your organization, your mobile user base will always have their customiza-

tions and preferred environment available to them on networked machines.

Command Line Utilities

In this section, I’ll look at several ways you can manage file, print, and user services

from the command line.

Using Shares

Sometimes it’s inconvenient to use the Windows GUI to map a drive—this is a prob-

lem particularly in logon scripts. How do you use a batch file to tell the mouse

pointer to move over to My Network Places? Instead, there’s a better way. The

net

use

command enables you to map any drive to any server on your network, and in

some cases, outside networks, too. The syntax is:

net use drive \\server\share

Here are some common examples that you should find useful.

To map drive H to Lisa Johnson’s home directory on server MERCURY:

net use H: \\mercury\users\lmjohnson

To map the first available drive letter to the same directory:

net use * \\mercury\users\lmjohnson

Sometimes you might need to connect to a share on a domain that isn’t trusted by

your home domain. If you have an account on that domain, you can use it to con-

nect, like so:

net use H:

\\foreignmachine\sharename

/user:foreigndomain\username

(If you need to use a password, you’ll be prompted for it.)