Move %APPDATA% to central location

[striskle]

I'm having troubles with an unattended installation involving moving APPDATA, LOCALAPPDATA and PERSONAL to a central location.

We have an educational environment and are attempting to decrease login time for our workstations by moving APPDATA, LOCALAPPDATA and PERSONAL to a central location in c:\users. (Therefore not spending time copying 200MB worth of files at each login.) We are NOT moving the entire profile, just the folders specified above. We use DeepFreeze on our workstations so the users receive a fresh copy of APPDATA, LOCALAPPDATA and PERSONAL each time the workstation is restarted.

I know which keys need to be modified:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders]

Appdata=C:\User\Application Dara

Personal=C:\User\My Documents

Local AppData=C:\User\Local Settings\Application Data

(I am aware that these are REG_EXPAND_SZ keys, I've just listed them in text here)

When I import the registry modifications at T-12 via CMDLINES I receive the dreaded "Windows Cannot Load The Users Profile" for every user who logs in on the workstation.

How can I make these registry modifications so that all users (including Administrator) have these common file locations?

[TheReasonIFail]

So you want all the users to share those folders?

So the "My Documents" for all users would be the same? C:\Users\My Documents instead of C:\User\%USERNAME%\My Documents?

Edited June 23, 2009 by TheReasonIFail

[striskle]

Yes, that's exactly right, users have ADMIN rights on the workstation so rights are not a problem in this scenario

[striskle]

Just to update, I've also attempted to edit HIVEDEF.INF with the following values:

U_SHELL_FOLDERS_APPDATA="C:\User\Application Data"

U_SHELL_FOLDERS_PERSONAL="C:\User\My Documents"

U_SHELL_FOLDERS_MYPICTURES="C:\User\My Documents\My Pictures"

U_SHELL_FOLDERS_LOCAL_APPDATA="C:\User\Local Settings\Application Data"

But in this scenario the only reg entry that sticks is the "My Pictures" - everything else defaults back to %USERPROFILE% after the OS is installed.

(I've read other posts that suggested this wouldn't work but I'm not quite sure why)

I have a script that does everything I want it to do:

* loads "Documents and Settings\Default User\ntuser.dat" hive, modifies the values, unloads the hive,

* copies APPDATA, LOCALAPPDATA and PERSONAL for Administrator to c:\users so any customizations made during app installs are maintained

* deletes "C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator" so at the next login Administrator will create a new profile with the appropriate registry settings

I've tried to use schtasks to create a task at system startup (running as SYSTEM) to do this but the task fails (I don't know why)

I can do this with a manual process post-os-install (login as another "user" account, run the script, reboot, login as administrator delete the "user" account), but I'd REALLY like to have it done automatically during the unattended install. (And yes, I know I can script the logging in as the other user etc. but I really think there has to be a simpiler way!)

[b-man]

would doing it through run once work?? or even just run the reg file when u have logged in as admin

or try editing the settings for all users

HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders