Windows XP and 2000 User Profile Tutorial

When setting up a workstation image for a computer that may be used by many different users setting a standard profile is a great time saver. Getting this done is quite easy if you know the procedure. I get many questions on doing this so I am putting together a little how to.

Using a single user (probably Administrator) on a computer not joined to a Windows domain set up all your applications preferences, printers, and permanent drive mappings (not the kind from a logon script). Also, run any applications that require agreements to licenses, clean all the user menus, set all the proxy settings, and what ever else may show up the 1st time a user uses it.

Now, you need to restart the computer and log in as a different user with local administrator rights. I usually create a second administrative user for this purpose. As this second user you would need to allow the user to see all files including system and hidden ones. Open Windows Explorer and go to the C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator folder (this is assuming you used Administrator as your set up user) Find the file ntuser.dat and copy it to the C:\Documents and Settings\Default User folder. You may overwrite the original file, or rename the original to keep a backup.

What this just did. The ntuser.dat file contains all the stuff that you set up during the initial setup. Now whenever someone new logs onto the computer the local profile will be created using the ntuser.dat you copied. You can also add Favorites and other files to the Default User folder so that it is applied to all users.