Handling user AppData - Windows

bbigford

We have folder redirection for documents and desktop, but I'm still unsure how I want to handle AppData. There are certain things that are worth backing up, like Firefox/Chrome bookmarks, Outlook signatures in %appdata%\Microsoft\Signatures, etc. For bookmarks, sure users could sign into the browser, but I'm not going to rely on them for that; I want to handle things for them so I can sleep at night knowing their 10k bookmarks are backed up, along with tons of signatures.

But I have had so many issues with redirecting AppData, and various forums also say that's not a good thing to do because of weird issues that can occur with bringing over AppData to a new PC.

How's everyone handling AppData for Windows users?

gjacobse

I have seen Folder Redirection go very wrong. It can be 'okay' for Documents, Pictures, and similar - much more than that is pure end user customization, and really transient...

End points fails, users leave or get moved. if you over load yourself in grabbing every little NIT, you'll go crazy.

Is it possible? sure,.. but when it breaks - it's ugly..

jmoore

@bbigford I honestly don't. I help them create accounts and sign in. If they are getting a machine upgrade I tell them to get everything in order first.

black3dynamite

Some of my users including myself too. Create a Mozilla and Google account and we just use our own work email address when signing up.

You could set up a task scheduler to backup up the Firefox/Chrome and Signatures.

momurda

There are extensions for Chrome and Firefox to autobackup of bookmarks.
You could do something like copy all the c:\username\appdata folders for a machine to a file share.

\\fileshare\computer1\users\jsmith\appdata\*
\\fileshare\computer1\users\auser\appdata\*
\\fileshare\computer2\users\jdoe\appdata\*

bbigford

@jmoore said in Handling user AppData - Windows:

@bbigford I honestly don't. I help them create accounts and sign in. If they are getting a machine upgrade I tell them to get everything in order first.

This is in the event of a critical system crash. Drive dies without warning.

bbigford

@black3dynamite said in Handling user AppData - Windows:

Some of my users including myself too. Create a Mozilla and Google account and we just use our own work email address when signing up.

You could set up a task scheduler to backup up the Firefox/Chrome and Signatures.

Good idea for a few users (I sign into Firefox with my work account to back up my bookmarks related to work). But I'm looking at this for hundreds of users; possibly thousands.

pmoncho

@bbigford said in Handling user AppData - Windows:

But I have had so many issues with redirecting AppData, and various forums also say that's not a good thing to do because of weird issues that can occur with bringing over AppData to a new PC.

I chose to leave AppData alone. I had a bad experience bringing over some info from AppData when it caused a few issues. I ended up creating a new profile and starting over with those couple users.

Some users will use a Firefox or Google account to store their bookmarks. For others who don't want to or don't care, I have them export their bookmarks to their redirected My Documents folder on occasion or during a pc refresh. It has worked for a long time with no major issues.

I don't have half as many users as you do though.

jmoore

@black3dynamite said in Handling user AppData - Windows:

Some of my users including myself too. Create a Mozilla and Google account and we just use our own work email address when signing up.

We do the same, makes it pretty easy for us.

jmoore

@black3dynamite said in Handling user AppData - Windows:

You could set up a task scheduler to backup up the Firefox/Chrome and Signatures.

Great idea to use task scheduler, I hadn't thought of that. Will test!

jmoore

@bbigford Oh I see. We have shared drives they are supposed to save everything on. Together with signing into Google or Mozilla prevents most problems for us. It's been about 3 years since someone complained about losing something here.

black3dynamite

@bbigford said in Handling user AppData - Windows:

@black3dynamite said in Handling user AppData - Windows:

Some of my users including myself too. Create a Mozilla and Google account and we just use our own work email address when signing up.

You could set up a task scheduler to backup up the Firefox/Chrome and Signatures.

Good idea for a few users (I sign into Firefox with my work account to back up my bookmarks related to work). But I'm looking at this for hundreds of users; possibly thousands.

I guess you can provide them a script that they have to run manually to backup bookmarks and signatures to a shared drive.

jmoore

@black3dynamite Task scheduler for that too

momurda

@black3dynamite Yes this is good, you could deploy a shortcut or script on their desktop, then they could manually run it or you could schedule task to do so.

bbigford

@black3dynamite said in Handling user AppData - Windows:

@bbigford said in Handling user AppData - Windows:

@black3dynamite said in Handling user AppData - Windows:

Some of my users including myself too. Create a Mozilla and Google account and we just use our own work email address when signing up.

You could set up a task scheduler to backup up the Firefox/Chrome and Signatures.

Good idea for a few users (I sign into Firefox with my work account to back up my bookmarks related to work). But I'm looking at this for hundreds of users; possibly thousands.

I guess you can provide them a script that they have to run manually to backup bookmarks and signatures to a shared drive.

Goal is to automate, doing things manual introduces too much human error.

jmoore

@bbigford your totally right

black3dynamite

@bbigford said in Handling user AppData - Windows:

@black3dynamite said in Handling user AppData - Windows:

@bbigford said in Handling user AppData - Windows:

@black3dynamite said in Handling user AppData - Windows:

Some of my users including myself too. Create a Mozilla and Google account and we just use our own work email address when signing up.

You could set up a task scheduler to backup up the Firefox/Chrome and Signatures.

Good idea for a few users (I sign into Firefox with my work account to back up my bookmarks related to work). But I'm looking at this for hundreds of users; possibly thousands.

I guess you can provide them a script that they have to run manually to backup bookmarks and signatures to a shared drive.

Goal is to automate, doing things manual introduces too much human error.

I totally agree with the manual approach can cause too much human error.

Looks like Google Chrome has an option to set user data directory by using --user-data-dir command line flag. There is an option when using Chrome Policy templates to set directory too.

wrx7m

For the Outlook sigs, just copy them from a sent message.

dbeato

I responded to you on another forum but basically I said was Sync bookmarks through Firefox and Chrome Sync with their accounts. For signatures copy it from a sent message.

bbigford

@wrx7m said in Handling user AppData - Windows:

For the Outlook sigs, just copy them from a sent message.

Trying to do as little manual configuration long term as possible. Trying to automate everything.