this is a really good compilation of information about user profile management. In addition to the resources mentioned I’d like to point you to my whitepaper about Citrix User Profile Manager which also contains an extensive discussion about traditional remedies to solve profile problems. You can find the latest version here: http://blogs.sepago.de/nicholas/2008/05/21/future-development-of-the-user-profile-whitepaper/.

Regards,
Nicholas.

Good blog and very nessecary. I am surprised to see you mention there is no control over the profiles etc with Roaming Profiles. Other vendors have successful conquered these issues. Entrigue and Script Start come to mind. It is the most comprehensive solution we could find. It automates end user profile settings and their most robust version makes Profiles completly portable. This rids you of the issue of little control over roaming profiles. The solution, in fact, gives you total control over end user profiles while remaining portable and flexible in any Windows environment.

I have been using AppSense Environment Manager to manage our user profiles for almost 2 years now. I do not agree with your suggestion to avoid using the solution, although I would be interested to know your reasons since all I have seen is success here so far. Our solution encompasses thousands of user and hundreds of servers.

Yes, there was a small amount of upfront work associated with the implementation, but it has been running now for almost 2 years and my personalization issues are no longer a problem. I have recently spoken with AppSense regarding their roadmap and they have hinted on several occasions a new version will be released in the coming months with functionality to automate profile setup and reduce that admin overhead involved.

Thanks

Sunil