Windows 2000 Administration in a Nutshell

Name

home folder

Synopsis

Create a home folder for a user.

Procedures

Some preparatory work must be done prior to creating and configuring home folders for users:

1. Choose a network file server where users’ home folders will be created.

2. Create and share a folder on an NTFS volume on the server. This folder can be shared with any name, but typically something descriptive like Users is used.

3. Modify the shared-folder permissions on the shared folder by:

   • Removing Full Control for Everyone

   • Assigning Full Control to Users

   This provides the additional security of enabling only domain users to access the contents of the share.

You can now create and configure home folders for users by using the Active Directory Users and Computers console.

Create a Home Folder

Select user account → Action → Properties → Profile tab

You now have two options:

• Specify a Local path for the user’s home folder. This will create the home folder on the client computer, which really negates the whole point of using home folders (better simply to use My Documents instead).

• Connect (map) a drive letter to where the user’s home folder will be located on the network file server. You specify the location by entering the full UNC path to the user’s home folder, in the form:

                             \\server_name\shared_folder_name\user_name

  Note that the home folder has the same name as the username.

Click OK and the home folder will be created for the user and will be assigned the NTFS permission Full Control for that user only. Note that the ownership of ...