As you’ve seen in this chapter, you can manage user settings and data in many ways. Through the use of roaming profiles, you can ensure that users have access to their global settings and essential data from anywhere on the network. Not only does this ensure that a user’s desktop has a consistent look and feel regardless of the computer he is using, but it also ensures that he can access his My Documents folder, user-specific application data, and desktop settings.

A key drawback of a roaming profile is that a user’s data is moved across the network at logon and logoff. You can reduce network traffic during logon and logoff and speed up logon and logoff by using folder redirection. Redirected folders allow for seamless redirection of folders and data that would otherwise be a part of a user’s profile, including the Application Data, My Documents, Start Menu, and Desktop folders. Because folders are redirected to a network share, administrators get centralized management and better control over user data, which in turn makes the data easier to back up and restore. Through policy, you can optimize the way profiles are used in many ways.

Windows Server 2003 also allows you to configure two types of scripts to help configure the desktop and user environment: computer scripts, which are run at startup or shutdown, and user scripts, which are run at logon or logoff. Computer and user scripts are also defined in policy.