The roaming and synchronization group policy settings turn Horizon Persona Management on and off, set the location of the remote profile repository, determine which folders and files belong to the user profile, and control how to synchronize folders and files.
All these settings are in the folder in the Group Policy Management Editor.
| Group Policy Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Manage user persona | Determines whether to manage user profiles dynamically with Horizon Persona Management or with Windows roaming profiles. This setting turns Horizon Persona Management on and off. When this setting is enabled, Horizon Persona Management manages user profiles. When the setting is enabled, you can specify a profile upload interval in minutes. This value determines how often changes in the user profile are copied to the remote repository. The default value is 10 minutes. When this setting is disabled or not configured, user profiles are managed by Windows. |
| Persona repository location | Specifies the location of the user profile repository. This setting also determines whether to use a network share that is specified in Horizon Persona Management or a path that is configured in Active Directory to support Windows roaming profiles. When this setting is enabled, you can use the Share path to determine the location of the user profile repository. In the Share path text box, you specify a UNC path to a network share that is accessible to Horizon Persona Management desktops. This setting lets Horizon Persona Management control the location of the user profile repository. For example: \\server.domain.com\VPRepository If %username% is not part of the folder path that you configure, Horizon Persona Management appends %username%.%userdomain% to the path. For example: \\server.domain.com\VPRepository\%username%.%userdomain% If you specify a location in the Share path, you do not have to set up roaming profiles in Windows or configure a user profile path in Active Directory to support Windows roaming profiles. For details about configuring a UNC network share for Horizon Persona Management, see Configure a User Profile Repository. By default, the Active Directory user profile path is used. Specifically, when the Share path is left blank, the Active Directory user profile path is used. The Share path is blank and inactive when this setting is disabled or not configured. You can also leave the path blank when this setting is enabled. When this setting is enabled, you can select the Override Active Directory user profile path if it is configured check box to make sure that Horizon Persona Management uses the path specified in the Share path. By default, this check box is unchecked, and Horizon Persona Management uses the Active Directory user profile path when both locations are configured. |
| Remove local persona at log off | Deletes each user's locally stored profile from the Horizon machine when the user logs off. You can also check a box to delete each user's local settings folders when the user profile is removed. Checking this box removes the AppData\Local folder. For guidelines for using this setting, see Best Practices for Configuring a Horizon Persona Management Deployment. When this setting is disabled or not configured, the locally stored user profiles, including local settings folders, are not deleted when users log off. |
| Roam local settings folders | Roams the local settings folders with the rest of each user profile. This policy affects the AppData\Local folder. By default, local settings are not roamed. You must enable this setting if you use Microsoft OneDrive. |
| Files and folders to preload | Specifies a list of files and folders that are downloaded to the local user profile when the user logs in. Changes in the files are copied to the remote repository as they occur. In some situations, you might want to preload specific files and folders into the locally stored user profile. Use this setting to specify these files and folders. Specify paths that are relative to the root of the local profile. Do not specify a drive in a pathname. For example: Application Data\Microsoft\Certificates After the specified files and folders are preloaded, Horizon Persona Management manages the files and folders in the same way that it manages other profile data. When a user updates preloaded files or folders, Horizon Persona Management copies the updated data to the remote profile repository during the session, at the next profile upload interval. |
| Files and folders to preload (exceptions) | Prevents the specified files and folders from being preloaded. The selected folder paths must reside within the folders that you specify in the Files and folders to preload setting. Specify paths that are relative to the root of the local profile. Do not specify a drive in a pathname. |
| Windows roaming profiles synchronization | Specifies a list of files and folders that are managed by standard Windows roaming profiles. The files and folders are retrieved from the remote repository when the user logs in. The files are not copied to the remote repository until the user logs off. For the specified files and folders, Horizon Persona Management ignores the profile replication interval that is configured by the Profile upload interval in the Manage user persona setting. Specify paths that are relative to the root of the local profile. Do not specify a drive in a pathname. |
| Windows roaming profiles synchronization (exceptions) | The selected files and folders are exceptions to the paths that are specified in the Windows roaming profiles synchronization setting. The selected folder paths must reside within the folders that you specify in the Windows roaming profiles synchronization setting. Specify paths that are relative to the root of the local profile. Do not specify a drive in a pathname. |
| Files and folders excluded from roaming | Specifies a list of files and folders that are not roamed with the rest of the user profile. The specified files and folders exist only on the local system. Some situations require specific files and folders to reside only in the locally stored user profile. For example, you can exclude temporary and cached files from roaming. These files do not need to be replicated to the remote repository. Specify paths that are relative to the root of the local profile. Do not specify a drive in a pathname. By default, the user profile's temp folder, ThinApp cache folder, and cache folders for Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, and Opera are excluded from roaming. |
| Files and folders excluded from roaming (exceptions) | The selected files and folders are exceptions to the paths that are specified in the Files and folders excluded from roaming setting. The selected folder paths must reside within the folders that you specify in the Files and folders excluded from roaming setting. Specify paths that are relative to the root of the local profile. Do not specify a drive in a pathname. |
| Enable background download for laptops | Downloads all files in the user profile when a user logs in to a laptop on which the Horizon Persona Management software is installed. Files are downloaded in the background. When the operation is complete, a pop-up notification appears on the user's screen: Background download complete. To allow this notification to appear on the user's laptop, you must enable the Show critical errors to users via tray icon alerts setting.
Note: If you enable this setting, as a best practice, notify your users to make sure that the profile is completely downloaded before the users disconnect from the network.
If a user takes a standalone laptop offline before the profile download is complete, the user might not have access to local profile files. While the user is offline, the user will be unable to open a local file that was not fully downloaded. |
| Folders to background download | The selected folders are downloaded in the background after a user logs in to the desktop. In certain cases, you can optimize Horizon Persona Management by downloading the contents of specific folders in the background. With this setting, users do not have to wait for large files to download when they start an application. Also, users do not have to wait for the files to preload when they log in, as they might if you use the Files and folders to preload setting with very large files. For example, you can include VMware ThinApp sandbox folders in the Folders to background download setting. The background download does not affect performance when a user logs in or uses other applications on the desktop. When the user starts the ThinApp application, the required ThinApp sandbox files are likely to be downloaded from the remote repository, improving the application startup time. Specify paths that are relative to the root of the local profile. Do not specify a drive in a pathname. |
| Folders to background download (exceptions) | The selected folders are exceptions to the paths that are specified in the Folders to background download setting. The selected folder paths must reside within the folders that you specify in the Folders to background download setting. Specify paths that are relative to the root of the local profile. Do not specify a drive in a pathname. |
| Excluded processes | The I/O of the specified processes are ignored by Horizon Persona Management. You might have to add certain anti-virus applications to the Excluded processes list to prevent performance problems. If an anti-virus application does not have a feature to disable offline file retrieval during its on-demand scans, the Excluded processes setting prevents the application from retrieving files unnecessarily. However, Horizon Persona Management does replicate changes to files and settings in the users' profiles that are made by excluded processes. To add processes to the Excluded processes list, enable this setting, click Show, type the process name, and click OK. For example: process.exe. |
| Cleanup CLFS files | Deletes the files that are generated by Common Log File System (CLFS) for ntuser.dat and usrclass.dat from the roaming profile on logon. Enable this setting only if you have to repair user profiles that are experiencing a problem with these files. Otherwise, leave the setting disabled or not configured. |
