You probably know that ntuser.dat contains the HKEY_CURRENT_USER registry hive that is, it stores all user settings, those of Windows and most applications. It clearly states that only ntuser.dat is affected by this function. I only found one new Group Policy setting related to the background upload feature (Computer Configuration | Administrative Templates | System | User Profiles).

It appears that not the whole profile but only the ntuser.dat file is synchronized with the server while the user is still logged on. Unfortunately, I was a little disappointed when I had a closer look at the background upload of roaming user profiles with Windows 7 RTM.

Hence I was curious to try this new Windows 7 feature. I always found these workarounds not very convenient and also error-prone. For example, you can redirect the document folders to a file server or work with offline files. There are several ways to remedy this problem. Users who have just come out of a rush hour traffic jam are usually not very patient when they have to wait for ages until their profiles are downloaded because the company network is jammed or because the file servers are too busy. in the morning when they start working and in the evening before they leave work. In some organizations people tend to log on and log off at the same time, i.e. This was one of the features that had been on my wish list since I worked with roaming user profiles in Windows NT 4. With this improvement, users can roam from one PC to another while remaining logged in to both PCs-and still have the same consistent environment.Īs I read this, the whole user profile is synchronized with the server while the user is logged on. Prior to Windows 7, this synchronization occurred only when users logged off.

Windows 7 makes Roaming User Profiles more useful and reliable by enabling IT professionals to automatically synchronize users’ profiles with the server while users are still logged on.

Ntuser dat windows 7