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2 Microsoft Windows NT Server White Paper
bilities of Windows NT 4.0, and as such these techniques can readily be
adapted to accommodate a corporation’s specific computing requirements. In
the near future, you will see additional TCO-reducing features appear in Micro-
soft Windows® 98, Windows NT 5.0, and Microsoft Systems Management
Server. Central to these features is the idea of centralized desktop control.
This is accomplished through User Profiles and System Policies—the subject
of this paper.
What are User Profiles and System Policies?
A Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 User Profile describes the Windows NT configu-
ration for a specific user, including the user’s environment and preference
settings. For example, those settings and configuration options specific to the
user—such as installed applications, desktop icons, color options, and so
forth—are contained in a User Profile. This profile is built in part from System
Policy information (for example, those things that a user has access to and
those things that the user can and cannot change) and in part from permitted,
saved changes that a user makes to customize his or her desktop.
A System Policy is a set of registry settings that together define the com-
puter resources available to a group of users or an individual. Policies define
the various facets of the desktop environment that a system administrator
needs to control, such as which applications are available, which applications
appear on the user’s desktop, which applications and options appear in the
Start menu, who can change attributes of their desktops and who cannot, and
so forth.
With the addition of System Policies and the new User Profile structure to
Windows NT 4.0, network administrators have a greater ability to control the
user environment than they ever have had before. Many of the requests that
customers submitted, including providing more options in controlling the user’s
desktop, accessibility to applications and system tools, minimizing administra-
tive overhead, and scalability enhancements, have been added. And, as with
every release, Microsoft encourages customer feedback on enhancements to
the Windows NT operating system.
This document provides the details that administrators need to implement a
rollout of User Profiles and System Policies under Windows NT 4.0. Although
the primary emphasis is Windows NT, this paper also discusses how User
Profiles are handled with Windows 95 clients and how the two platforms differ.
Before You Begin
Before proceeding with this document, we recommend that you read Chapters
3 and 4 of the Windows NT 4.0 Concepts and Planning Guide. In addition, you
should be familiar with the following terms and concepts.