Roaming Profiles - problems with excluding the "new windows 7 directories", like Downloads

I have a Server 2003 domain and I’m trying to set up a GPO for roaming profile with Windows 7, using one (test) user account and two Win7 computers for testing.

The GPO, for now, is set to delete cached copies of roaming profiles to ease simulating users moving to new computers.

I get the following results:

· When using roaming profiles without excluded directories or folder redirection everything works fine – the user can log on and off the two computers without problems and the network profile gets updated as it should. I set the theme to Basic and this setting is roamed between the two computers.

· When excluding or redirecting any of the “old XP directories”, like “Desktop” or “Favorites”, it also works fine.

· When excluding or redirecting any or the new directories, like “Downloads” or “Saved Games” I run into trouble.

After setting exclusion for, say Downloads, I deleted the network profile and double checked that the local copy of the profile was cleared.

a. First I log in to the user account on Computer A, thus creating a new profile. This works fine.

b. Then I log off the computer checking that the network folder has been updated (it has but the downloads folder is missing – and I guess it should when I have excluded that folder from roaming?) and log in again.

c. When opening an explorer windows the “Downloads” folder is missing and in the left pane the icon is blank and pointing to C:\Users\USERNAME\Links instead of C:\Users\USERNAME\Downloads. Shouldn’t the roaming profile merge with the default on the PC so this folder gets created locally on the client?

d. I now scratch my head and log on to computer B.

e. Here I have the exact same error BUT I also get a black background. When looking at the settings I now have an unsaved theme using “Transcoded wallpaper” (Black) but when checking C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Themes\ the correct Basic theme background is there, named Transcoded Wallpaper – as it should. A check in the registry at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop shows the correct settings.

I have tried this with both exclusion of directories in the “Exclude directories in roaming profile” setting and with Folder Redirection under Windows Settings with the same result.

It seems to me that there should be some kind of merge between the default profile on the computer with the roaming profile that don’t take place when redirecting or excluding these “new Win7 folders”

I can’t find anything in the logs. Any idea?

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