Windows 2000 Administration in a Nutshell

Name

home folder

Synopsis

A centralized location on a network file server where users can store their personal documents.

Description

Home folders were a feature of Windows NT that allowed users to store their personal files on network file servers, which could be backed up easily, instead of on their local machines. While Windows 2000 still supports home folders for backward compatibility with legacy applications, the default location for users to store their personal files is now the My Documents folder. By default, this folder is located on a user’s local machine and is part of the user’s profile.

Instead of configuring home folders on network file servers for your users, you can use Group Policy instead to redirect users’ My Documents folders to network shares. See folder redirection in this chapter for more information.

The only reason you might consider using home folders instead of My Documents is to provide support for legacy MS-DOS and Windows 3.x/9x/NT applications that cannot recognize My Documents as the default storage location for users’ work files. You’re really better off migrating your applications to Windows 2000- compatibile versions that support My Documents instead of creating and configuring NT-style home folders for your users.

Notes

• Make sure you create home folders on an NTFS volume to ensure users’ work is secured. Each user will have Full Control permission on his own home folder, and no other user (including Administrators) will have access to his home folder. ...