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Sorry in advance if this is a bit of a newbie question, I'm new to this concept and I do not have control over the network setup and have little knowledge regarding network configuration.

I have a roaming profile which takes between 10 and 30 minutes to login and log off. I cannot find any logs in the event viewer which indicate why it takes this long.

Is this caused only by having alot of data stored in the profile? Or could it be caused by permissions, or other programs i.e anti virus programs etc

Other than deleting data that appears to be taking up alot of space (and therefore having to be copied when logging in/logging out), what else can be done to investigate/fix this?

Theomax
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2 Answers2

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Large files in the profile can make logon / logoff slow. Large numbers of small files can really, really slow down the process. If you're not seeing error messages then everything is working alright. How big are the profiles that are problematic, both in disk usage and number of files?

You should probably have a look at Roaming Profiles: Best Practices where you'll find some links to decent resources.

Community
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Evan Anderson
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  • I need to investigate it further, but using a tool called space sniffer it seems to be indicating that chrome cache is taking up alot of space - but when I investigated the cache folder for my profile it wasn't alot. I think I might be confused as to where the copied files are located etc What could make the loading time into windows desktop vary from 10 to 30 minutes? Surely it couldn't have been one days worth of temp files? – Theomax Aug 06 '12 at 19:29
  • What is the operating system? What are the counts of files and total bytes like for the problematic profile? – Evan Anderson Aug 06 '12 at 20:16
  • Since you are tinkering with Chrome, I recommend you get the system/corporate installer for Chrome and not install it in your user profile. And along with the links in the article above look into excluding cache/temp directories from RP: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc975931.aspx – Mark Aug 06 '12 at 20:22
  • I thought that the use of roaming profiles had been discouraged a long time ago and that most sites don't use this feature. – mdpc Aug 06 '12 at 20:37
  • @mdpc: I'm not aware of Microsoft "de-emphasizing" the feature. I use it, combined with Folder Redirection and other Group Policy features, for a couple thousand client computers running Windows XP, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008 R2 (Terminal Server computers). It helps me maintain client computers in a quasi-stateless fashion and allows for easy PC repairs (technicians can just rip and replace with spares, re-image machines at their whim, etc). It has its quirks, certainly, but I get very good use out of it. – Evan Anderson Aug 06 '12 at 20:43
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I agree with the above answer related to large files in the profile. Its also important to know how users are delegated access to certain network drives, printers, etc. Many times, scripts are used (VBS, batch, etc.) to mount network drives, configure certain configurations/permissions, and these scripts running can increase the logon time. Especially if a certain part of the script is hanging or perhaps is looping before failing. MOST restrictions related to user profiles can be done through GPO and controlling user restrictions through group policies is incredibly faster than through scripts. As a IT systems admin, this is something I have experienced first hand. The individual before me thought it would be a great idea to make VBS scripts for everything instead of just using GPO (Not a good idea). Once we removed the scripts and configured everything through GPO, the login times were significantly lower.

Degraded Ethernet cables, Ethernet cards, switches, routers, etc. can also factor into longer logon times.

Blake
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