Move Users Folder Location in Windows 10

Kari · 22 Mar 2016

Tolqua said:

Any ideas?

I am not a fan of cloning, mostly because based on my own experience using (copying, cloning) an existing Windows installation with all its hardware drivers on another hard drive without preparing the image to this new hardware. This is why I do never clone Windows installation if I want to use it as is on other hardware. Please notice this is my personal, subjective opinion; other geeks might protest and tell cloning is OK :)

Instead I prepare my Windows install image with all my customizations and installed software to be hardware independent using the method described in this tutorial: Windows 10 Image - Customize in Audit Mode with Sysprep - Windows 10 Forums

I do not know if it's the above or something else but I have never seen nor experienced the browser issues you told about. I have no ideas, no tips t tell to you.

Kari

Kari · 22 Mar 2016

BogeyGolfer said:

Hope the attachment works this time.

Yes it worked but revealed nothing. I can only repeat what I said earlier, your Users folder on D: cannot have anything to do with your current Windows installation because you have restored the system drive C: to a point before the failed relocation process.

BogeyGolfer said:

I noticed in some other Tutorials that you can now get a clean Windows install on upgraded machines?

Yes, that is true. If you have upgraded from Windows 7 and the existing Windows 10 is activated with a digital entitlement (see screenshot below), you can clean install Windows 10 skipping the product key dialog selecting I do not have a product key. Windows will be automatically activated as soon as you enter the desktop after the installation and Windows connects to Internet.

Move Users Folder Location in Windows 10-2016_03_22_05_39_481.png

Kari

Kari · 22 Mar 2016

johngalt said:

Hi, Kari. LTNS!

I just performed a clean install of Win 10 x64 build 10586 on my machine, and used method 1 to successfully moved the /User tree to another drive.

I am now using the ESD2ISO to get the latest Redstone 14291 build installed on the same machine, and I will see if it allows me to install over. If not, I will then perform a clean install and sew if method 1 here works out not.

Cheers!

You will have no upgrade issues but please come back and confirm this, post about how it went :)

Kari

johngalt · 22 Mar 2016

Of course not. I have used your method now so many times that I still had an old relocate.xm; that I could modify to shorten the process.

Worked like a champ, of course.

Two things to note:

You probably already know, but most of the time the media service is not running, but I do tender the trials when you and others had issues with sysprep failing until you killed it. It just should not be running on a new system, but that is over and done.

Second : audit mode runs with elevated privileges, so the regular cmd.exe still runs as admin. As does notepad. IE, etc. So, it really doesn't matter which cmd.exe you use to run that sysprep command. I ran the regular one just to verify, and of course it worked

. After all, you have gotten to be an old hack at this now.

Kari · 22 Mar 2016

johngalt said:

You probably already know, but most of the time the media service is not running, but I do tender the trials when you and others had issues with sysprep failing until you killed it. It just should not be running on a new system, but that is over and done.

Yes, to stop the WMPNETWORKSVC was and is more important in Windows 7, where it usually always runs. In Windows 10 that is an unnecessary step.

johngalt said:

Second : audit mode runs with elevated privileges, so the regular cmd.exe still runs as admin. As does notepad. IE, etc. So, it really doesn't matter which cmd.exe you use to run that sysprep command. I ran the regular one just to verify, and of course it worked

. After all, you have gotten to be an old hack at this now.

I prefer the elevated command prompt even in Audit Mode simply because my laziness has no limits; to jump to Sysprep folder requires command CD Sysprep in elevated command prompt because it opens by default in C:\Windows\System32, but in normal command prompt I need CD \Windows\System32\Sysprep. That's 18 extra keystrokes!

Tolqua · 22 Mar 2016

Kari said:

I am not a fan of cloning, mostly because based on my own experience using (copying, cloning) an existing Windows installation with all its hardware drivers on another hard drive without preparing the image to this new hardware. This is why I do never clone Windows installation if I want to use it as is on other hardware. Please notice this is my personal, subjective opinion; other geeks might protest and tell cloning is OK :)

Instead I prepare my Windows install image with all my customizations and installed software to be hardware independent using the method described in this tutorial: Windows 10 Image - Customize in Audit Mode with Sysprep - Windows 10 Forums

I do not know if it's the above or something else but I have never seen nor experienced the browser issues you told about. I have no ideas, no tips t tell to you.

Kari

Thanks for your reply.

I understand your dislike of cloning and have read articles from very highly qualified Microsoft techs explaining why this method is fraught with dangers, but the truth is it can work well and I've had some good results with Macrium Reflect (so much easier to use and more reliable than Acronis). However, even when it's a success, it's only good for deployment and having read your excellent tutorial on how to use sysprep , audit mode etc. I may well have a go.

This is the 'correct' way to do things according to those MS techs, but I'd not know where to begin and spent an entire day just reading about which bits of software I'd need and downloading SDKs, etc.. I gave up before even starting, but with your clear, step-by-step guide, I'm tempted to have a go. Having a truly hardware-independent image of the OS with all my common programs and customisations already done is quite something I relish - particularly the ability to customise the default user so new users inherit the same characteristics when created. This is something that can only be achieved in this way even if the final image is deployed using cloning.

I'll let you know how I get on.

Thanks again for some great work!

sratakhin · 23 Mar 2016

Hello Kari,

Thank you for your outstanding tutorial. It took me several tries using a Hyper-V VM (snapshots are a blessing!) but everything works well in the end. However, I'm trying to accomplish a bit more. In addition to moving the Users folder to drive D:, I also want to customize the default profile. I've done the required customizations already and here is my relocate.xml file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend">
<settings pass="oobeSystem">
<component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<CopyProfile>true</CopyProfile>
<FolderLocations>
<ProfilesDirectory>D:\Users</ProfilesDirectory>
</FolderLocations>
</component>
</settings>
<cpi

fflineImage cpi:source="wim:E:\install-x64-pro.wim#Windows 10 Pro" xmlns:cpi="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:cpi" />
</unattend>

However, after rebooting in "normal" mode, Windows creates a new profile that looks exactly like a default profile and doesn't include any of my customizations. The <copyprofile> switch seems to work well when the Users folder isn't relocated though. Any ideas on what I am doing wrong?

Kari · 23 Mar 2016

sratakhin said:

However, after rebooting in "normal" mode, Windows creates a new profile that looks exactly like a default profile and doesn't include any of my customizations. The <copyprofile> switch seems to work well when the Users folder isn't relocated though. Any ideas on what I am doing wrong?

First, welcome to the Ten Forums.

The CopyProfile component only works if the /generalize switch is used with Sysprep command. See this tutorial for detailed instructions: Windows 10 Image - Customize in Audit Mode with Sysprep - Windows 10 Forums

As it happens, I am at this very moment finishing the edit of a new video about the process. The video will be posted in the above mentioned tutorial thread within a few hours :)

Move Users Folder Location in Windows 10-2016_03_23_11_17_251.png

Kari

sratakhin · 23 Mar 2016

Kari said:

First, welcome to the Ten Forums.

The CopyProfile component only works if the /generalize switch is used with Sysprep command. See this tutorial for detailed instructions: Windows 10 Image - Customize in Audit Mode with Sysprep - Windows 10 Forums

As it happens, I am at this very moment finishing the edit of a new video about the process. The video will be posted in the above mentioned tutorial thread within a few hours :)

Kari

Alright, makes sense! I omitted /generalize as I thought it could save me some time during testing :)

Kari · 23 Mar 2016

Kari said:

The CopyProfile component only works if the /generalize switch is used with Sysprep command. See this tutorial for detailed instructions: Windows 10 Image - Customize in Audit Mode with Sysprep - Windows 10 Forums

As it happens, I am at this very moment finishing the edit of a new video about the process. The video will be posted in the above mentioned tutorial thread within a few hours.

Posted the videos, see Windows 10 Image - Customize in Audit Mode with Sysprep - Page 32 - Windows 10 Forums.

More Windows 10 videos at Windows 10 instructional videos by Ten Forums members - Windows 10 Forums