Mandatory profiles are mostly used in Terminal Services environments, although you can use them with Windows desktops as well. With mandatory profiles, personalization changes of the desktop are effective only during a Windows session. When the user logs out, all changes are deleted. With VMware Dynamic Environment Manager, you can eliminate the need of customizing mandatory profiles, manage the settings that are available for personalization, and customize the user environment settings.
The following are the advantages and disadvantages of mandatory profiles:
- Advantages
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- Short login and logout times.
- Consistent user experience, no matter what the user changes.
- Minimal troubleshooting on user profiles.
- Disadvantages
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- None of the personalization changes made by users are saved.
- Creating a usable and customized mandatory profile requires a high level of skill.
- Scripting is often necessary to create shortcuts, drive mappings, and so on.
When using
VMware Dynamic Environment Manager with mandatory profiles, you can address the disadvantages in the following ways:
- Select the settings that users are allowed to personalize within their environment. Settings that you do not manage with VMware Dynamic Environment Manager are discarded when the user logs out.
- Configure specific settings for applications or Windows settings by using the Predefined Settings feature of VMware Dynamic Environment Manager. By using predefined settings, you do not need to customize a mandatory profile. A mandatory profile that is based on the Default User profile is sufficient.
- Customize the user environment by creating shortcuts, drive mappings, and so on.
