Tuesday, November 16, 2004

Using Templates ... not your brain

SBS 2003 has a feature that Windows Server does not have... ok it has a few features standard server doesn't have, but in this particular post, I wanted to share with you the wonder of using user templates.

You may have noticed that SBS has 4 templates out of the box

  • Administrator Template - template to create additional administrators, consider using this template sparingly

  • Power User Template - users who can add users and have limited administrative functionality

  • Mobile User Template - template to create users who can use VPN/dial-up functionality of the server

  • User Template - This should be the most common template for users. All of these users can use the Remote Web Workplace


What is so cool about templates? You can make as many as you like!

I spend time building templates and then when I add new users to my system, I can simply use the standard Add User Wizard and choose the appropriate template, each user will be added to the correct distribution groups, security groups, quotes, etc.

Play around with templates, get to know them, they can help you keep your environment consistent.

4 comments:

Sean Daniel said...

Hrm, bunch of questions here, sorry that It took so long for me to get back to you.

1) the Z: drive is only mapped in SBS 2000 and prior, it doesn't get mapped in SBS 2003 (mainly because we think mapping drives is old school :) ). If you liked the Z: drive mapped you can Abuse the Logon Script to add the command to map a drive: net use z: \\server\users

2) You didn't mention it, but it sounds like you want to move the documents to the server. There is a tool in the Users (or Backup or Shares) Snap-in that says "Redirect Users My Documents", you'll want to enable this to point to the default location, the Users' share. This will automatically create the %username%\My Documents for the user to use.

If you want to re-direct more than just the My Documents, you should get into Group Policy.

Here is how to redirect the desktop

Here is how to redirect the favourites.

I wouldn't suggest using roaming profiles (Which keeps the entire profile on the server) because if that user logs into another PC, and the installed apps are not installed into the exact location, or the client isn't almost identical, you'll run into issues.

Anonymous said...

Can you suggest a fix? Before my time users were added solely with the server management wizard, most were given user templates. Since I have been there I have added the old user and computer way. Office is moving away from Eudora first to simple POP3 outlook to ISP and then later in the year Exchange. My users work, older users when Outlook is started look for an exchange server, which we don't have, Outlook errors and closes. I think if the user had been a Poweruser template this might not happen.

Anonymous said...

Sean,

Actually, SBS 2003 MAY map the Z Drive.. IF the user was created under SBS 2000 (and migrated to 2003)..

Look at a users
Properties | Profile tab:

If the user is old they will have the Home Folder | Connect radio button selected and it will be set to map Z: to their User Folder.

If the user is new (created under SBS 2003) they will have the Local Path radio button selected /w a blank path.

Brian Skeddle

Anonymous said...

why dont try to do it in the users properties instead same spot you would put in roaming profiles(Profile)tab
EX. \\server\users\%username%