Profile management addresses user profile deficiencies in environments where simultaneous domain logons by the same user introduce complexities and consistency issues to the profile. For example, if a user starts sessions to two different virtual resources based on a roaming profile, the profile of the session that terminates last overrides the profile of the first session. This problem, known as “last write wins”, discards any personalization settings that the user makes in the first session.
You can tackle the problem by using separate profiles for each resource silo. However, this results in increased administration overhead and storage capacity requirements. Another drawback is that users will experience different settings depending on the resource silo they access.
Profile management optimizes profiles in an easy and reliable way. At interim stages and at logoff, registry changes, as well as files and folders in the profile, are saved to the user store for each user. If, as is common, a file already exists, it is overwritten if it has an earlier time stamp.
At logon, users’ registry entries and files are copied from the user store. If a locally cached profile exists, the two sets are synchronized. This makes all settings for all applications and silos available during the session and it is no longer necessary to maintain a separate user profile for each silo. Citrix streamed user profiles can further enhance logon times.
Profile management helps to safeguard application settings for mobile users who experience network disruption (if the offline profiles features is configured) and users who access resources from different operating systems (if the cross-platform settings feature is configured).
Note: Profile management processes domain user logons not local accounts.
For a more detailed overview of Profile management, see http://community.citrix.com/x/AoEAAg.
Known Issues in Profile Management 4.0
The following known issues exist in this version.
With the cross-platform settings feature configured, your Windows XP wallpaper should be displayed when you roam from Windows XP to Windows 7, but instead the default Windows 7 desktop wallpaper is displayed when you first log on to that operating system. To work around this issue, reset your wallpaper after you first log on to Windows 7. Subsequent changes to the wallpaper are preserved and roamed when you next log on. [#27210]
With the cross-platform settings feature configured, the checkbox Prevent programs from suggesting changes to my default search provider (a search setting) in Internet Explorer 8 can be selected on Windows XP but the selection is not displayed when you roam to Windows 7. There is no workaround for this issue. [#33796]
If you upgrade Profile management on a computer when a user is logged on to it, the upgrade fails and data in monitoring systems (for example, Perfmon counters) might become unreliable. Always follow the documented upgrade procedure by ensuring all users are logged off first. [#35098]
Occasionally, when a user logs off from a computer, a stale profile folder with a domain-name suffix is created locally. This issue occurs even if Delete locally cached profile is enabled. For example, the folder C:\Users\folder-name becomes C:\Users\folder-name.domain-name. The issue may affect XenApp users and XenDesktop users with persistent virtual desktops but not those with pooled desktops. To work around the issue, delete all stale cached profiles from the system. [#47933]
Users may experience no wallpaper (a black background to their desktops) in two scenarios. Each has a different workaround. In the first scenario, a stale profile results in the same symptoms as issue #47933 but additionally no wallpaper is displayed. In this scenario, the same workaround for that issue can be employed. In the second scenario, which occurs only on Windows XP, there is no stale profile but users still experience no wallpaper because the required image file is not processed by Profile management. To work around the issue in this scenario, include the entry Application Data\Microsoft\*.BMP in the Files to synchronize policy. [#47935]
If you misconfigure the Folders to mirror policy, the system may inadvertently delete user data in the user store the second time this policy is applied. For example, if you add the same path twice or add two subfolders of the same parent folder. To avoid this issue, configure the policy according to the Profile management documentation. [#157322]
If the Path to user store policy contains a trailing space, the specified folder in the user store has no owner (on the Security tab of the folder’s Properties dialog box) and is therefore unusable. To workaround this issue, remove the trailing space and run a gpupdate. [#246793]
Citrix Profile Management 4.0 – eDocs
