Samba Administration Guide - Disabling Roaming Profile Support

Windows 9x/Me User Profiles

To support Windows 9x/Me clients, you must use the logon home parameter. Samba has been fixed so net use /home now works as well and it, too, relies on the logon home parameter.

By using the logon home parameter, you are restricted to putting Windows 9x/Me profiles in the user's home directory. But wait! There is a trick you can use. If you set the following in the [global] section of your smb.conf file:

logon home = \\%L\%U\.profiles

then your Windows 9x/Me clients will dutifully put their clients in a subdirectory of your home directory called .profiles (making them hidden).

Not only that, but net use /home will also work because of a feature in Windows 9x/Me. It removes any directory stuff off the end of the home directory area and only uses the server and share portion. That is, it looks like you specified \\%L\%U for logon home.

Mixed Windows Windows 9x/Me and NT4/200x User Profiles

You can support profiles for Windows 9x and Windows NT clients by setting both the logon home and logon path parameters. For example,

logon home = \\%L\%U\.profiles

logon path = \\%L\profiles\%U

Windows 9x/Me and NT4 and later profiles should not be stored in the same location because Windows NT4 and later will experience problems with mixed profile environments.

Disabling Roaming Profile Support

The question often asked is, “How may I enforce use of local profiles?” or “How do I disable roaming profiles?”

There are three ways of doing this:

In smb.conf

Affect the following settings and ALL clients will be forced to use a local profile: logon home = and logon path =

The arguments to these parameters must be left blank. It is necessary to include the = sign to specifically assign the empty value.

MS Windows Registry:

Use the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) gpedit.msc to instruct your MS Windows XP machine to use only a local profile. This, of course, modifies registry settings. The full path to the option is:

Local Computer Policy\
	Computer Configuration\
		Administrative Templates\
			System\
				User Profiles\

Disable: Only Allow Local User Profiles 
Disable: Prevent Roaming Profile Change from Propagating to the Server

Change of Profile Type:

From the start menu right-click on the My Computer icon, select Properties, click on the User Profiles tab, select the profile you wish to change from Roaming type to Local, and click on Change Type.

Consult the MS Windows registry guide for your particular MS Windows version for more information about which registry keys to change to enforce use of only local user profiles.

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Note

Windows 9x/Me User Profiles

Mixed Windows Windows 9x/Me and NT4/200x User Profiles

Disabling Roaming Profile Support