Okay.
So let's summarize this module on folder redirection and kind of the process of rolling user data around
on server shares.
So folder redirection policy which we introduced in this module, can be used to redirect those key
user data folders out of the profile and up to a server share somewhere.
And with folder redirection, you get a lot of stuff for free, like the automatic creation of the folder
and the positioning of the folder.
You can optionally copy the user's data up at first, log on so you get all of that stuff for free with
using folder redirection.
And I did also mention that some folders probably shouldn't be redirected like app data and desktop.
But that there's a lot of folders like documents and music and pictures and history that can and should
be redirected.
If you've got users that are moving from machine to machine and need a way to drag their content along
with them.
So when used in conjunction with roaming profiles, this really provides that kind of seamless, you
know, go to machine from machine to machine and have not only my user experience in terms of how my
desktop and environment looks, but also the data that I need to do my work.
How all that kind of follows you to each of those machines that you go to.
Now, again, redirection can be either basic, which is just, you know, redirect everyone that processes
that policy to the same location or use the same rules to send them to the same location.
Or advanced redirection, which lets you leveraged security groups to redirect different groups or members
of different groups to different folder shares.
Now redirected folders are automatically cached using the offline files feature in windows.
And you'll notice that if you go and right click the folder or a document that's been redirected, you'll
see that it says that it's always available offline and that can be turned off using group policy.
Using administrative templates settings.
But by and large, that's the default.
Now, if you don't need that, all of the bells and whistles of folder redirection, you know, there
are some downsides that I mentioned, like it requiring a synchronous foreground refresh to take effect.
And the fact that if you're automatically copying hundreds of megs or gigs of data up, that may not
be a great scenario for the user on that first log on.
If you don't need any of that sort of auto magic stuff, that folder redirection does.
Then I showed you that group policy preferences registry tweak you can make to the user shell folders
path and the users registry that can be a nice low tech alternative to making folder redirection happen.
And speaking of preferences, the next module I'm going to really dig into and kind of give you an overview
of using preferences across the board and some of the features that preferences provides that regular
old policies don't provide.