Folder redirection problems

[Hugh Janus]

Hi all,

I have a Win2K3 domain with XP clients. I use the folder redirection
GPO to redirect %APPDATA% to a network share, this config was not
chosen by me i just inherited it :-( All works fine except for when a
user takes his laptop home and connects via VPN. Because of the slow
network link, it takes around 5 minutes for applications that use
%APPDATA% to open. For example, the MS Word templates are there so it
takes a long time to open the app and it often hangs.

I could just remove the policy and put the content back into the user
profile however, in their infinite wisdom, the packaging team has hard
coded the path of the %APPDATA% variable into the install packages
that they have made (over 1000) whereas they should have used the
variable. So, I can't remove the redirection as apps will fail but if
i don't remove it I have slow machines!

Can anyone help out? I was looking into XP mount points but it seems
that these are only for local drives. I was hoping to be able to
somehow tell the system that when a call is made to Z:\AppData, the
real path to the folder is to a local folder.

TIA,
Hugh

 

[Anthony]

Hugh,
There are some different elements to this problem.
- The custom msi's are hard coded to use a network drive for the %appdata%
folder. Can you check that? It would be quite hard to do, not impossible but
hard. If that's the case, the redirection doesn't come in to it. The apps
need to find the network drive to work. If that's the case, you could
attempt to solve it by sharing the local %appdata% folder and scripting a
mapped drive to it, but it is very messy.
- Could it be just that some network resources like templates have been hard
coded to a network drive, instead of being scripted into %appdata%? If
that's the case, you could possibly run a script to correct the problem by
changing the location in the registry. The long term solution is to fix the
msi's that do that.
- All your other apps will still be using the redirected %appdata%
correctly. The Group Policy setting "Configure Slow link speed" should
determine whether they think they are on or off line,
Hope that helps,
Anthony
http://www.airdesk.co.uk






"Hugh Janus" <my-junk-account@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1183444708.466703.225590@n2g2000hse.googlegroups.com...
> Hi all,
>
> I have a Win2K3 domain with XP clients. I use the folder redirection
> GPO to redirect %APPDATA% to a network share, this config was not
> chosen by me i just inherited it :-( All works fine except for when a
> user takes his laptop home and connects via VPN. Because of the slow
> network link, it takes around 5 minutes for applications that use
> %APPDATA% to open. For example, the MS Word templates are there so it
> takes a long time to open the app and it often hangs.
>
> I could just remove the policy and put the content back into the user
> profile however, in their infinite wisdom, the packaging team has hard
> coded the path of the %APPDATA% variable into the install packages
> that they have made (over 1000) whereas they should have used the
> variable. So, I can't remove the redirection as apps will fail but if
> i don't remove it I have slow machines!
>
> Can anyone help out? I was looking into XP mount points but it seems
> that these are only for local drives. I was hoping to be able to
> somehow tell the system that when a call is made to Z:\AppData, the
> real path to the folder is to a local folder.
>
> TIA,
> Hugh
>

 

[Hugh Janus]

On Jul 3, 10:15 am, "Anthony" <anthony.s...@spammedout.com> wrote:
> Hugh,
> There are some different elements to this problem.
> - The custom msi's are hard coded to use a network drive for the %appdata%
> folder. Can you check that? It would be quite hard to do, not impossible but
> hard. If that's the case, the redirection doesn't come in to it. The apps
> need to find the network drive to work. If that's the case, you could
> attempt to solve it by sharing the local %appdata% folder and scripting a
> mapped drive to it, but it is very messy.
> - Could it be just that some network resources like templates have been hard
> coded to a network drive, instead of being scripted into %appdata%? If
> that's the case, you could possibly run a script to correct the problem by
> changing the location in the registry. The long term solution is to fix the
> msi's that do that.
> - All your other apps will still be using the redirected %appdata%
> correctly. The Group Policy setting "Configure Slow link speed" should
> determine whether they think they are on or off line,

Anthony,

In answer to your points:
1.) They have gone and used some bizarre packaging system that
create .exe only. Yes, i know it is cr4p.
2.) The applications actively look in the network drive for resources
files. Additionally, they configured Word to put the templates
there. I can script the MS products as they use the registry to store
the config, but the 3rd party apps cannot be scripted without editing
the package directly. I could add a script to logon for the user but
they would need to be admin in order to edit HKLM.

I want to get rid of the folder redirection which is why I was hoping
to use a mount point or something. Does anyone know if i can create a
mount point that maps a network share to a local folder? It does not
have to be an MS product...

TIA,
Hugh

 

[Anthony]

Hugh,
- It does not matter whether it is exe or msi. Have they done it for all
%appdata% or just for some resources like templates?
- You can still change the paths in the registry by scripting.
- I don't really follow why you want to get rid of redirection. If the
installs put appdata on the mapped drive, the redirection (and offline
files) is the only thing making them available locally again when offline.
- why not share the local %appdata% folder, then map the same drive letter
to it? It is horrible solution, but caused by hard coding the apps.
Anthony
http://www.airdesk.co.uk





"Hugh Janus" <my-junk-account@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1183473297.558443.32890@w5g2000hsg.googlegroups.com...
> On Jul 3, 10:15 am, "Anthony" <anthony.s...@spammedout.com> wrote:
>> Hugh,
>> There are some different elements to this problem.
>> - The custom msi's are hard coded to use a network drive for the
>> %appdata%
>> folder. Can you check that? It would be quite hard to do, not impossible
>> but
>> hard. If that's the case, the redirection doesn't come in to it. The apps
>> need to find the network drive to work. If that's the case, you could
>> attempt to solve it by sharing the local %appdata% folder and scripting a
>> mapped drive to it, but it is very messy.
>> - Could it be just that some network resources like templates have been
>> hard
>> coded to a network drive, instead of being scripted into %appdata%? If
>> that's the case, you could possibly run a script to correct the problem
>> by
>> changing the location in the registry. The long term solution is to fix
>> the
>> msi's that do that.
>> - All your other apps will still be using the redirected %appdata%
>> correctly. The Group Policy setting "Configure Slow link speed" should
>> determine whether they think they are on or off line,
>
> Anthony,
>
> In answer to your points:
> 1.) They have gone and used some bizarre packaging system that
> create .exe only. Yes, i know it is cr4p.
> 2.) The applications actively look in the network drive for resources
> files. Additionally, they configured Word to put the templates
> there. I can script the MS products as they use the registry to store
> the config, but the 3rd party apps cannot be scripted without editing
> the package directly. I could add a script to logon for the user but
> they would need to be admin in order to edit HKLM.
>
> I want to get rid of the folder redirection which is why I was hoping
> to use a mount point or something. Does anyone know if i can create a
> mount point that maps a network share to a local folder? It does not
> have to be an MS product...
>
> TIA,
> Hugh
>