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I have a Windows Server 2012 VM running as my domain controller, and another Server 2012 VM instance that is my file server.

On my NAS, I used to be able to create a user, and the NAS would automatically make a home folder for them along with the appropriate permissions. However, we want to switch to using a Server 2012 VM instead of the NAS. This is the only thing holding us up.

I'm not using roaming profiles and don't plan on using them.

How do I do this in Server 2012 / AD?

2 Answers2

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The most common approach is to use folder redirection, and to use an environmental variable in the path when configuring your GPO.

For example:

enter image description here

Every domain user has their My Documents subfolders redirected to a folder on our file server, and use of the %username% environment variable creates a folder for them named the same as their AD username.

(I blurred out the other options because they're embarrassingly misconfigured - I inherited this setup, and haven't quite got around to fixing everything yet.)

HopelessN00b
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If you use a variable name for the username, and bulk edit the profiles, you can can create home folders for all of your users, and new ones will even create for your copied users.

Active Directory; batch editing home folders?

While that applies specifically to Server '03, it should be the same for server 2012.

Community
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IceMage
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  • While this answer is not technically incorrect, there is a big difference in how to change existing home folders, and how to setup new ones. When setting up new ones, you let the GPO do the work for you, and don't need to be batch editing anything. – HopelessN00b Oct 16 '15 at 21:29
  • This method works with new profiles too. GPO is NOT the only method of doing this. – IceMage Oct 19 '15 at 14:37
  • `the NAS would automatically make a home folder for them along with the appropriate permissions` I have a hard time seeing batch editing as "automatic," whereas the GPO approach has an option to [automatically] "create a folder for each user under the root path." – HopelessN00b Oct 19 '15 at 14:40
  • The mass edit will have the domain controller both create and set the permissions for the folders, just as the GPO method does. – IceMage Oct 23 '15 at 19:24