How to Create Mandatory Profiles with Windows NT 4.0

• Microsoft Windows NT Workstation version 4.0
• Microsoft Windows NT Server version 4.0

SUMMARY

The following article discusses how to create mandatory profiles for Windows NT version 4.0.

MORE INFORMATION

To create a mandatory profile for Windows NT 4.0, perform the following steps:

1. Create a user called "Template" who will have the same privileges and rights as the users in the group for which you are creating the mandatory profile. (This step is very important so that you do not have conflicting permissions while setting up shares, programs, and so on.)

2. Log on to the computer running Windows NT Workstation as the new Template user and set up the profile (set up the desktop, install applications, and so on) to your specifications and log off the computer. The profile will not be created until you log off.

3. Log back on to the computer running Windows NT Workstation as a user with administrator privileges on the local workstation as well as on the domain and start the System tool in Control Panel. Select the User Profiles tab.

4. Highlight the profile for your Template user and select Copy To. In the Copy To dialog box, you will need to specify where you want to copy the profile and who is permitted to use it.

   a. Under the Permitted To Use section of this dialog box, click Change

         and select the user or group who will be permitted to use this
         profile.
   

   b. Next, you will need to specify where you want to COPY PROFILE TO. For

         a server based mandatory profile, you will need to specify the
         following information:
   

            \\ServerName\Sharename\Name of Profile
   
         For example, \\PENDRAGON1\Profiles\mandatory.
   
      If you are using mandatory profiles, go to step 5; otherwise, go to
      step 6.
   
   

5. Windows NT 4.0 has implemented two levels of security in mandatory profiles.

   The first level is to rename the Ntuser.dat file to .man. This will allow the users of a mandatory profile to log on to the domain using cached information, if the profile is unavailable on the central server.

   a. The steps to implement the first level of mandatory security:

         Change the user's profile path in user manager to reflect the
         mandatory profile.
   

            \\servername\sharename\profilename
   
        Rename the Ntuser.dat to Ntuser.man under the profile directory
   
      The second level is to add a .MAN extension on the directory name. When
      using the .man extension, if the profile is unavailable, the workstation
      will not log the user on and it will return to the CTRL+ALT+DELETE logon
      screen.
   
      b. The steps in getting the second level of security are:
   
         1) Add .man extension to profile path in user manager:
   
               \\servername\sharename\profilename.man
   
         2) Add .man extension to server based profile DIRECTORY and the
            Ntuser.dat file needs to be renamed to Ntuser.man
   
   

6. Click OK to copy the profile to where you have specified. Open Windows NT explorer and connect to the path where you have copied the profile. Open the directory and rename the Ntuser.dat to Ntuser.man. This will prevent users from being able to modify the profile. If this is not renamed, it will not function as a mandatory profile.

7. In User Manager for Domains, select the users you want to use the mandatory profile and in the properties for each user, select Profile and specify the path to where the mandatory profile exists in the User Profile Path box. This must be a UNC path so it must be in the form of \\Server\Share\Profile (all users who are going to be using this profile must have at least read access to the root share and the profile folder).

8. Test by logging on to the workstation as another user who has just been granted the mandatory profile.

Keywords          : ntdomain NTSrvWkst kbnetwork
Version           : WinNT:4.0
Platform          : winnt
Issue type        : kbhowto