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Managing Users' Redirected Folders

  • Article

Applies To: Windows SBS 2008

Users’ settings and users’ files and folders are normally stored in the user profile on the client computer, in the Documents and Settings folder. Data that is stored on the local client computer can be lost if there is a hardware failure or if the files become corrupt. To help prevent data loss, you can store users’ folders by redirecting them to the server.

Advantages of folder redirection

  • Folder redirection is almost transparent to users. Users continue to access redirected folders the same way they accessed the folders that are stored on their client computers. But instead of the data being stored in a local folder on their client computer, the data is stored in their shared folder on the server.

  • Users can access their redirected files and folders from any client computer on the network that is running Windows Vista or Windows XP.

  • Windows SBS 2008 enables local offline file caching by default. This gives users access to their files and folder even when they are not connected to the network. This is particularly useful for people who use portable computers.

  • Data that is stored in a shared network folder can be backed up as part of routine system administration. This is safer because it requires no action on the part of the user.

  • As an administrator, you can set soft disk quotas that limit the amount of hard disk space that is available to each user for their data folders. A soft disk quota notifies the user and the administrator when a quota is exceeded, but does not prevent the user from saving additional data to their redirected files and folders.

Types of folders to redirect

There are three types of folders that can be redirected:

  • Documents folders on Windows Vista client computers or My Documents on Windows XP client computers.

Note

For compatibility between the Windows Vista and Windows XP operating systems, the Pictures, Music, and Videos folders are redirected with the Documents folders.

  • Desktop

  • Start menu

Managing folder redirection

For information about how to manage redirected folders, see the following topics: