I am pretty much new to Windows servers.
What I want to achieve:
- Allow the users to login using central credential from any on the Client PCs within LAN/WLAN.
- They don't get access to the server's desktop even with their valid credentials. This should be just for authentication at client PCs.
- They should have a private folder located on the server to which they can save their personal files.
- This private folder should get auto-mounted (with drive letter) on the PC where they login.
I read about the Shared home folder, but I'm preferring a different folder without a system wide importance such as user home directory. - (optional) There should be an option to keep their files on the local system instead of the server share (#2, #3 above) if they want to.
Reading around the techNet manuals and various SO answers, I got a hint that Active Directory can be of use for my purpose. But I am unsure about which Server version I should use, and how would I setup the entire system. Do I need any additional tools to set this up.
Is that all possible to achieve these without making any special setting on the client PCs? I mean just by setting up the server in some particular way!
This (How to "batch" create folders for Active Directory users' network drive?) appears like closer to my needs, but I'm not able to fully understand this.
Apparently it needs the mount script to be run on client PC at login, which I less prefer.
Curiously, I'd like to know whether this setup is possible without using a Server OS at all. For instance, Windows 8.1 Desktop version with few additional Windows tools installed.