Redirecting User profile to another drive

 Resources needed for this blog:

WS2016-Test : Group Policy management

Win10Pro : Client machine for testing

A.    Configure Group Policy for modifying registry settings

1. On Server Manager, click tools and then click Group Policy Management

2. Go to the target OU then right click, then click Create a GPO in this domain, and link it here..

(optionally, you can configure this settings on existing GPO)

3. On New GPO windows, Type GPO name then click Ok

4. Right click that GPO then click Edit

5. Navigate to User Configuration>Preferences> click and Right click Registry, click New then Registry item

6. On the Hive, select HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, then on the Key Path, click ellipsis …

7. On registry item, extend/navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE> SOFTWARE> MICROSOFT> Windows NT> CurrentVersion> Profile List

Then Click ProfilesDirectory and click Select button

8. On New Registry Properties windows, in the value data change the %SystemDrive%\Users to E:\Users (Where drive E must be present on workstation and Users Folder is pre-created) Then click Ok

A.    Verify if Policy is applied on Client-side

1.      1. If there is currently logged onto the client machine, open Windows Powershell, Type gpupdate /force then press Enter. Then sign out.

2.      2. Login using new account in this scenario, I used TESTER user.

3. Navigate to C:\Users then check if new user profile is created (this should be not created on this default location of user profile since this is NEW user)

4. Navigate to E:\Users then check if new user profile is created (this should be created here)

NOTE: Existing User profile prior to configuring redirection will need manual intervention by means of manual copying of existing user profile from C:\Users to E:\Users.

If you encounter any errors by following this steps, please comment below

Thank you