Using User Profiles with Identical User Names

• Microsoft Windows 95

SYMPTOMS

Windows 95 identifies a user's profile by username only. The authenticating server or domain is not taken into account, so users with the same username on different servers or domains appear to be the same user to Windows 95, and use the same user profile.

RESOLUTION

When a user logs on, if the profile on the workstation is newer than the profile on the server, the profile is copied to the server. This behavior is by design for mobile computing, because the user may have changed the profile while not connected to the network.

To work around this limitation, use any one of the following methods:

• Have users with the same usernames on different servers or domains change their usernames so they are not identical.
• When another user with the same username logs on in the future, have that user click No when prompted with:

        You have not logged on at this computer before. Would you like this
        computer to retain your individual settings for use when you log on
        here in the future?
  

• Make the user profiles with this problem mandatory, by renaming the User.dat file to User.man in the user's home directory.

  Note that Windows 95 does not copy the profile back to the server in this case, and the user is forced to use the profile.

STATUS

Microsoft is researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.