Share via

Disabled roaming profiles but APPDATA is still pointing to the roaming location instead of local

it_person2672 1 Reputation point
2022-02-03T17:54:45.317+00:00

Initially had roaming profiles setup and after battling numerous issues, decided to return all users back to local profiles. I updated all users in AD to remove the profile location and then went into GP and set "Only allow local user profiles".

This seems to work mostly as users are now logged in locally for almost everything except APPDATA. %APPDATA% still points to the roaming profile location (on the NFS server) instead of the local . What can I do to get appdata updated to point back to the local roaming folder? Thanks.

Windows for business | Windows Server | User experience | Other
0 comments

3 answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. it_person2672 1 Reputation point
    2022-02-03T19:58:28.353+00:00

    More details.

    I have verified nothing is setup in AD (User properties --> Profile --> Profile Path) is empty.

    I created a GPO at the top level where I set “Only allow local user profiles” and “Prevent Roaming Profile Changes from propagating to the server” to enabled.

    Users are able to login and by navigating to Control Panel --> System & Security --> System --> Advanced Settings --> User Profiles. The account I login with shows Type and status of "local".

    When I open a command window and type "set", it shows me APPDATA is pointing to the previous roaming profile location.

    How do I get the profiles to point APPDATA back to local?

    0 comments
  2. Limitless Technology 39,926 Reputation points
    2022-02-04T09:09:16.297+00:00

    Hello Itperson2672

    I would suggest two different actions.

    For one side, ensure that the setting is propagated by GPO by setting the policy User Configuration-->Administrative Templates-->System-->User Profiles-->Exclude directories in roaming profile.

    Then hard configure the setting to avoid roaming for the folder via registry:

    [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]
    "ExcludeProfileDirs"="AppData\Local;AppData\LocalLow;$Recycle.Bin"

    --If the reply is helpful, please Upvote and Accept as answer--

  3. Kallen Roman 1 Reputation point
    2022-12-05T13:47:06.36+00:00

    Hi @it_person2672

    did you progress?

    I have a similar behavior here. Despite the policy, I have a few users with roaming profiles. Such a crap

    0 comments

Your answer

Answers can be marked as Accepted Answers by the question author, which helps users to know the answer solved the author's problem.