Profile Container content

By default the profile container VHD will contain the entire Windows profile for the user, except for:

• The TEMP (TMP) folder location
• The IE Cache folder location

The Windows user profile is composed of the contents of a specific folder location, and some registry information. Typically this folder location is something like C:\Users\<username>.

If desired, the admin can specify that parts of the user profile are persisted in the profile container. Exclusions are done with a redirections.xml file. The redirections.xml file instructs the FSLogix agent to redirect specific folders out of the profile container and into the local C: drive. Any part of the profile that is excluded is deleted at sign-out.

local_<username> Folder

When a user signs in and a FSLogix Profile container is connected and used by that user, you will see two additional folders in the C:\Users directory:

• A \<username> folder (or some variation)
• A local_<username> folder

The <username> folder is a link into the profile container. FSLogix advanced redirection capabilities make contents of the profile container look as if they exist at this location. The second folder, local_<username>, is a real folder on C:.

At user sign-out, the <username> redirect will disappear and the local_<username> folder is lazily deleted by the FSLogix service.

redirections.xml

Note

Exclusions should be the exception and should never be used unless the specific exclusion is completely understood by the person configuring the exclusion. Exclusions should always be fully tested in the environment where they are intended to be implemented. Configuring exclusions may impact functionality, stability and performance.

The redirections.xml file is used to control what folders are redirected out of the profile container to the C: drive. It can also, optionally, sync the contents of these folders to and from the profile container at user sign-out and sign in respectively.

Location The redirections.xml file resides in the profile container in the <ProfileRoot>\AppData\Local\FSLogix folder. The redirections.xml file is not pre-created in this directory path. You must create the file if it does not exist.

Distribution The admin can use the built-in distribution capabilities of the FSLogix agent, or any other mechanism, to place the file into the profile container. To use the built-in copy mechanism, use the RedirXMLSourceFolder setting. At user sign-in, the FSLogix agent will copy the redirections.xml file from the specified location (if it exists) and process it immediately. The user must have Read permissions to the file.

Important

Exclusion mechanism based on redirection.xml works only for content inside the Profile Container. It does not work for Office Container.

Structure of redirections.xml file

The basic structure of the redirections.xml document is as follows:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<FrxProfileFolderRedirection ExcludeCommonFolders="<VALUE>">
<Excludes>
<Exclude Copy="<VALUE>">AppData\Low\FolderToDiscard\</Exclude>
<Exclude>… another exclude folders… </Exclude>
</Excludes>
<Includes>
<Include>AppData\Low\FolderToDiscard\FolderToKeep</Include>
<Include>… another include folders… </Include>
</Includes>
</FrxProfileFolderRedirection>

Folders are relative to the user profile root, this is why AppData is shown in this example.

You can put any number of entries inside Includes and Excludes tags.

Exclude folders are redirected out of the container to the C: drive and Include folders are used when certain folders should remain in the Profile Container. Include entries are used to redirect a folder back into the container when a parent folder has been redirected out of the container.

<VALUE> should be replaced with one of the following values:

• 0 = No files copied in or out. (Note: the copy tag may be left out entirely and the action will be the same as setting to 0. Only the folder(s) are created on the local_<user_name> directory.)
• 1 = Copy files to base. Any existing file in an excluded folder will be copied to base.
• 2 = Copy files back to virtual profile. Any modified file in base will be copied back to profile on user sign-out.
• 3 = Files are copied from/to base. Combinations options 1 and 2.