Copying Old Profiles Before Joining New Domain

[owensdj]

I'm going to be joining some XP Pro machines to a new domain after their single Server 2003 domain controller failed. Is there a way to copy the local user profiles from the XP Pro machines so the users won't have to "start over" in a new profile when they log into the new domain for the first time?

 

[RebateMonger]

No need to copy anything.

This is the method I use (stolen from the Internet):

"Migration and User Rights Local Administrators

Giving an old profile to a new User on local computer:

In the local registry under HKCU \ Software \ Microsoft \ WindowsNT \ CurrentVersion \ ProfileList
you will find the information on each user profile that computer "knows" about, which
includes the local profile folder for that user account. (The main subkeys under this
key are named in the form: {S-<random-numbers>}, but not to worry. Just know there is
one subkey for each different account that has ever logged in.)

So first, log in as the new domain user and note the profile folder name Windows is using.
It will usually be something like "C:\Documents and Settings\newuser.domain". (The DOS
variable %USERPROFILE% will tell you, as will looking at My Documents' properties.)

Now, if you log in as administrator (NOT the user), look in the registry key above
for the subkey that corresponds to that user -- you find it simply by looking for the value
in "ProfileImagePath" that you noted above. It should be obvious.

Just change the folder name in ProfileImagePath to the name of the old folder, and then
give the new domain account full NTFS permissions to the old folder tree. Log in as the user
and the local machine now maps your profile to that folder. You can delete the now-defunct
profile that Windows created if you worry about such things.

Renaming or copying profile folders is not to be recommended IMO. While it will generally
work OK, user profiles imbed their own path in various places in the user registry, and this
can give rise to some odd, hard-to-diagnose problems down the line.

Steve Duff, MCSE, MVP
Ergodic Systems, Inc."

 

[compman25]

What if they are part of a workgroup and I want to move them to a domain without them losing their desktop settings?

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: compman25
What if they are part of a workgroup and I want to move them to a domain without them losing their desktop settings?

You should be able to use the same technique. Log in once with the new Domain account, and then log in as Domain or Local Administrator and modify the Registry so that the new profile gets its data from the same place as the old Workgroup profile.