When it comes to user and computer management, change is the only constant. Change occurs in every organization, large or small. Sally might be using a loaner laptop today instead of her PC. Bob might be logging in from a remote office. Tom might be moving to a new PC. If the environment isn’t consistent, Sally, Bob, and Tom might spend more time trying to figure out what’s going on than performing work, and they might also have problems accessing their data. This isn’t good for them, and it certainly isn’t good for the people supporting them.

As an administrator or support staff member, there are many things you can do to reduce and, in many cases, eliminate problems that users experience due to changes in their environment. The most obvious is to use roaming or mandatory profiles for these types of users so that their desktops have a consistent look and feel regardless of the computers they are using. Roaming profiles are only part of the solution, however. To ensure a truly consistent environment, you must consider much more than the user’s profile. You must look at the general settings for the desktop, Start menu, task-bar, and Control Panel. You must also consider whether the related folders and data should be redirected to help centralize management and access. For example, you might want to redirect the Start menu, My Documents, and Application Data folders so that users have consistent access to their data across the organization.

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