Roaming Profiles, Terminal Server Profiles and Profile Versions

Good day All,

Welcome back, it been some time i did my last posting.. quite busy these days with so many things going on..

We are in the process of rolling out Folder Redirection for our Citrix users so during the process i had lot of confusions on Roaming profile and Terminal Server profile which loads when and why there are different version etc....

So i did some homework and thought to share the same so it may help someone else too..

Please the the screenshot below not sure how many of them understood

Let me tell you i didn't understand fully either and started to try different combinations to really understand this chart.

Before i post the result, the question why would you care??? well if you one of those users you need to implement Citrix UPM or Roaming Profiles Or if you introducing Windows 2012 R2 or Windows 2016 Citrix App Servers then yes you should have this knowledge because if no proper care taken you will hear lot of Profile corruption and also document missing in Profile issues.

How do we avoid it, well you should look at introducing folder redirection , that way Users My documents, desktop etc move along with User on any version of Windows they log in


Roaming Profile set for a User when logs on Windows 7:

A user when logs to a Windows 7 desktop/laptop gets a V2 profile created.

Roaming Profile set for a User when logs  on Windows 10:

A user when logs to a Windows 10 desktop/laptop gets a V5 profile created.


Roaming Profile V2 user logs to Windows 10 desktop/laptop:

A V2 Roaming Profile user when logs to a Windows 10 desktop/laptop then a new V5 profile will be created


Roaming Profile V5 user logs to Windows 7 desktop/laptop:

A V5 Roaming Profile user when logs to a Windows 7 desktop/laptop then a new V2 profile will be created



Roaming profile user on Windows 7 and launching Citrix\RDP on 2008\2012:


A V2 roaming profile user when launches Citrix or RDP on Windows 2008\2012 then same V2 profile will be loaded when no hotfix and registry changes are done.

A V2 roaming profile user when launches Citrix or RDP on Windows 2012 R2 then  V4 profile will be created if hotfix installed and registry changes are done.


Roaming profile user on Windows 10 and launching Citrix\RDP on 2008\2012:

Roaming Profile user on Windows 10 will have a V5 profile, so when he launches Citrix or RDP on Windows 2008\2012 then V2 profile will be created and loaded when no hotfix and registry changes are done.

A V5 roaming profile user when launches Citrix or RDP on Windows 2012 R2 then  V4 profile will be created and loaded if hotfix installed and registry changes are done.


Roaming Profile with TS Profile:

A V2 roaming Profile user if TS profile is attached then when launching Citrix or RDP on Windows 2008 then a new V2 TS profile will be created and loaded

A V2 roaming Profile user if TS profile is attached then when launching Citrix or RDP on Windows 2012 then a new V4 TS profile will be created if hotfix is installed and registry change are done.

A V5 roaming Profile user if TS Profile is attached then when launching Citrix or RDP on Windows 2008 then a new V2 profile will be created and loaded

A V5 roaming Profile user if TS profile is attached then when launching Citrix or RDP on Windows 2012 then a new V4 TS profile will be created and loaded if hotfix is installed and registry change are done.


Only TS Profile :

A new User with TS profile configured logs to a Citrix or RDP on Windows 2008 , then V2 profile will be created

A new User with TS profile configured logs to a Citrix or RDP on Windows 2012 , then V4 profile will be created if hotfix is installed and registry change is done ,if not it will search for any exsisting V2 profile to load or Will create a new V2 profile and will load.


Hotfix links:

Windows 8/Server 2012 (KB 2887239)
Windows 8.1/Server 2012 R2 (KB 2887595)

Registry Changes:

1. Locate and then tap or click the following registry subkey: 
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlset\Services\ProfSvc\Parameters
2. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then tap or click DWORD Value.
3. Type UseProfilePathExtensionVersion. 
4. Press and hold or right-click UseProfilePathExtensionVersion, and then tap or click Modify.
5. In the Value data box, type 1, and then tap or click OK.
6. Exit Registry Editor

Last Step: Make sure to reboot the Server. If anyone has question on which Server you going to do? well all the Server where you will RDP or Citrix App will be published .

I wanted to end with a example let say we have a new User, Roaming Profile has been set and the requirement is he will log to Windows 7 laptop, Windows 10 laptop and also will launch Citrix Application on Windows 2008, Windows 2012 how many profile will get created????? if hotfix and registry change is done on Windows 2012

If anyone say 3 then yup you got the concept right.. let me elaborate..

When User logs to Windows 7 he will get a V2 profile.
When the same User logs to Windows 10 he will get a V5 Profile
Same user When launch Citrix App on Windows 2008 then already created V2 profile will load.
Same user When launch Citrix App on Windows 2012 then new V4 profile will be created and loaded.

Hopefully this help some, until next one you all have a good day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!