Windows XP and Windows 7 PCs on one domain

Over Clocker · 14 Jun 2010 at 09:21

Hi guys.

We've been having a few problems introducing some Windows 7 PCs to a otherwise Windows XP domain, running on Server 2003.

Problems have mainly been to do with profiles. Some users are on a mandatory profile, some are on roaming profiles.

Anyone else having problems, or are you OK with XP and 7 on the same domain with roaming profiles?

Cheers,

Mal

Sp00n · 14 Jun 2010 at 09:50

Never had an issue, what specifically is going wrong?

Major_Disaster · 14 Jun 2010 at 09:57

Anything to do with the .V2?

Over Clocker · 14 Jun 2010 at 10:25

If a user logs onto a Windows 7 machine, loading of their profile fails. However, I've checked the roaming profile holding shared folder, and it does create a .v2 profile folder for them! The 2nd time they log onto a Windows 7 machine there is no problem!

I'm going to try a few tests later today, but was just wondering what others are doing really.

Cheers,

Mal

16-bit · 14 Jun 2010 at 10:49

I'm pretty sure XP profiles are incompatible with Win7, which is why they make the V2.

Folder redirection still works though.

mrbios · 14 Jun 2010 at 11:50

for mandatory profiles you need to create a .v2 folder with correct settings and permissions, see here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/973289

For roaming profiles what i've done for our users (only have about 40 roaming profile users) to save on hassle was to create the .v2 folder myself, set the permissions up, get them to log on once then off again, i'd then copy across anything they needed from there XP profile into the new one (favorites etc) and that was it. If you can, deny people with roaming profiles from saving to there desktop and have folder redirection on to stop people saving to there roaming profiles "my documents" folder, else you'll find they will log on to an XP machine, then complain when they can't find it on a windows 7 one.

There are a lot more group policies you'll want to set for windows 7 users too (if you use them?)

EDIT: one key thing i found with folder redirection on my documents though was that the wrong settings caused the folder you were redirecting to, would be wiped

matthab · 14 Jun 2010 at 13:30

This is why before I started doing a win7 refresh we added a second domain controller for windows 7 machines as are aged 2003 server started encountering these issues.

mrbios · 14 Jun 2010 at 13:32

EDIT: oops, for some reason thought i was in a different thread

WinOutreach · 24 Sep 2010 at 17:59

Hello Mal,

You cannot use the same roaming profile for Windows 7 and Windows XP at the same time. The structure of the profiles is different. You need to have two different profiles as you saw with the .v2.

If you want to set up the mandatory profile you have to set one up for Windows XP and one for Windows 7.

Also, with roaming profiles, you can have the same “My Documents” by using group policy to redirect the folder to a mapped drive.

Please copy and paste the link below into your web browser:

http://social.technet.microsoft.com...P/thread/ed8e555a-5d1b-4608-9008-332aacfb85e5

Esther
Windows Outreach Team- IT Pro