Supporting Users Who Travel Between Computers

Packing for the Trip with User Profiles

Traveling users rely on user profiles to track their user information, and on servers to make sure that the user profile information travels with them. Microsoft Office 2000 helps traveling users by storing all application data (such as user information, working files, and settings and preferences) in the Application Data folder for easy retrieval by the profile.

The Application Data folder is stored in different places, depending on your operating system installation. The following table identifies the default locations for the Application Data folder for each installation.

Note   In the beta 2 version of Windows 2000, the Application Data folder is stored in \Winnt\Profiles\Username. When you upgrade from beta 2 to the final version of Microsoft Windows 2000, the Application Data folder remains in the beta 2 folder.

Office 2000 stores all user-specific settings in the HKEY_CURRENT_USER subtree in the Windows registry. (Previous versions of Office stored these settings in both the HKEY_CURRENT_USER and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE subtrees.) With all the Office 2000 settings in one place, it’s easier to retrieve settings and keep the user profile up to date.

To support traveling users, you must set up both client and server computers with roaming user profiles (profiles that travel with the user account). Roaming user profiles are stored on the server and automatically downloaded to the client computer when users log on.

Note   Roaming user profiles are platform-specific. Because of differences between the Windows registry and the Windows NT registry, users cannot travel between Windows 95/98 and Windows NT or Windows 2000.

With roaming user profiles, traveling users can log on to any computer on the network and download their user profile information. When users change any of their settings, the profile is automatically updated on the server when they log off and their new information is automatically updated, too.

Note   During Setup, the Windows installer lets you set Office 2000 applications to Installed on First Use. This installation option works on a per-computer basis rather than on a per-user basis, so the Windows installer cannot track which applications your users have installed as they travel between computers. Your users’ application settings travel, but not the specific applications that have been installed on a particular computer. When users log on to the new computer and attempt to open an application, they might have to wait while the application is installed.