Putting User Directory on Mapped Network Drive on Windows 7

Question

I want to relocate my user directory "C:\Users\Edwin" to a mapped network drive E: (i.e. mapped from a network share \\192.168.22.9\share).

The difficult part is in relocating the user directory itself. I found 2 possible solutions, both of which were not applicable to me due to my use of a network drive.

1. Moving "C:\Users\Edwin" to "E:\Users\Edwin" and then use junction symlink (mklink -J) to link back to "C:\Users\Edwin".

   This doesn't work for me because i can't create a junction symlink from a directory on a non-local drive.

2. Changing the value of registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\ProfilesDirectory from "%SystemDrive%\Users" to "E:\Users" BEFORE creating the "Edwin" user.

   Thereafter, when "Edwin" user first logs in, the profile will be in E:\Users\Edwin.

The problem with this is that I run into a chicken-and-egg problem.

On first login as user "Edwin" the profile will be created in E:. However, at the moment I first login, the mapped network drive E: isn't there.

I've tried the following to no avail:

1. Create a persistent mapped drive as Administrator. Didn't work. The mapped drive is only visible to the Administrator user.

2. Create a persistent mapped drive using system rights (using PsExec -s). Didn't work. The mapped drive isn't "owned" by anyone, not even the current Administrator user.

3. Create a persistent mapped drive using the newly created Edwin user, without logging in as Edwin yet (using PsExec again). Didn't work. While is possible to create a mapped drive as a different user, once i tried to do it persistently (/persistent:yes), i get a "Access is Denied" error.

Any idea how this can be done? Or whether it even can be done at all?

Answer 1

I'd be interested to know why you would want this. Are you sure this would be a good solution to whatever you wanted to achieve, even if it were possible?

• If it is in order to protect your privacy, why not just keep the user folder to a minimum? That is, run Firefox and whatnot from E:, make sure the cache folder is also on E:, and set any folders that those programs use, such as the Downloads folder, to E:. And set My Documents to some folder on E.

• If it is in order to always have your personal data available at any place, why not set up a real-time backup to your E: drive? There are programs that can do this.

Answer 2

This is a bad idea. A better alternative would be using Roaming Profiles, but IIRC that requries active directory.