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jpipitone
Contributor
Contributor

Windows 10, Persona Folder Redirection - Unavailable

We're having issues with Persona Management and folder redirection. We enabled persona management, and folder redirection within the persona GPO (Computer Configuration->Policies->Administrative Templates->VMware View Agent Configuration->Persona Management->Folder Redirection)  We are having issues specifically with the Downloads, Documents, Pictures, Videos, Music folders.  The Desktop folder works fine.

These are Windows 10 VDIs.

Currently, the path to our persona server is \\persona01\VDI_UserFolders$\%username%.%userdomain%\Foldername

For instance:

\\persona01\VDI_UserFolders$\%username%.%userdomain%\Desktop works fine. The path to Downloads is \\persona01\VDI_UserFolders$\%username%.%userdomain%\Downloads.

We receive this message when browsing to Documents on the VDI:

"C:\Users\username\Documents is unavailable. If the location is on this PC....."

That folder does not exist inside C:\Users\username, but I do see C:\Users\username\Desktop

I do see the folders created under \\persona01\VDI_UserFolders$\%username%.%userdomain%\ folder - I see Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, etc.

Any idea why the local C:\Users\username\Documents, Downloads, folders are not being created locally? Initlaly, I can create files and folders, but the next time the user logs in, we receive the unavailable message. I've confirmed the permissions with the Share Validation Tool, no issues.

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13 Replies
liorshe
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hi jpipitone,

It is better to use with UEM for folder redirection , and that's very simple.

for your issues with the folder do this -

You need to add a five REG KEYS in the base image or add with UEM to users.

I add this REG KEY to users with UEM  - I made these changes In one user , I export the reg key and add them to Uem And finally i applied them to all users who work with Windows 10.

Go to -

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\UserShell Folders


Add this reg keys as "expandable string variable" -

Downloads -
{374DE290-123F-4565-9164-39C4925E467B}                         
-   

Desktop -
{754AC886-DF64-4CBA-86B5-F7FBF4FBCEF5}

Documents -
{F42EE2D3-909F-4907-8871-4C22FC0BF756}

Pictures - {0DDD015D-B06C-45D5-8C4C-F59713854639}

Music -
{A0C69A99-21C8-4671-8703-7934162FCF1D}

Videos -
{35286A68-3C57-41A1-BBB1-0EAE73D76C95}

Downloads-
{7D83EE9B-2244-4E70-B1F5-5393042AF1E4}

in the value data insert the path of
your folder redirection and the name of folder example-

\\servername\folderredirecion\%username%\Desktop

pastedImage_0.png

If you follow the steps correctly you will finally see one folder (not duplicates folder) in "User Files"  that points to yours folder redirect path.

if you do this in your base image after you finish you need to do recompose.

Hope I helped.

Good luck .




 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 




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Nealtendo64
Contributor
Contributor

I struggled with the same problems and since we are not licensed for UEM I solved it this way...

For the user folders that show under This PC I added the registry entries that liorshe mentioned into the User Configuration: Preferences : Windows Settings: Registry entry

For the Quick access folders I had to add "AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Recent" to the Files and folders to preload under Persona Management: Roaming & Synchronization

Hope this helps.

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KetekGroup
Contributor
Contributor

Hi There,

I am having the same problem here.

We are using Horizon 6.2.4 with Windows 10 (1607) and Persona Management. We use Dedicated Desktops for our users.

I have tried the above suggestions and it is not working. I tried to push to Registry changes VIA GPO but they do not seem to take (I have seen with Windows 10 1607 that most of the User Settings never actually do anything in GPO's... and yes I have the most current ADMX files). They did work fine in 1511 and 1507.

Next I tried to manually add the registry entries to my test VM and it had no effect. I then restarted the VM and it was still not working... I checked the Registry and all the entries I made were gone. I went into the Specific User Folder int he registry to check the Explorer settings and I see that all the correct folders are listed there in the default registry entries. Those must have been placed there by Persona Management.

This is driving me crazy... Desktop works fine but in "This PC" all the other folders keep going to the old known location and not the new server location. The interesting part is that all the Quick Access links DO work fine.

Does anyone else have any suggestions? The only fix is to manually go on each VM and right click on the folder and "Location" to the new location and then it will work fine from then on. But this completely defeats the automation of deploying VM's.

I desperately need help to solve this.

========

UPDATE:

========

So I decided to manually add the registry entries to HKEY_USERS\S1-5-21-*************   (The User Profile Of the User I am testing with)

With those entries THERE now the links work. So now my question is... how can a person place the entries in there for all possible users? Is there a default user?

It is impossible to pre-add to such a folder but if there is any way to add it to where a new user profile is created from (template).

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liorshe
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hi KetekGroup,

I suggest using UEM  for folder redirection And not use persona Management.

the uem folder redirection It is better to use with.

As for your question, you need to add New Reg settings to changes reg to all the user with UEM  -

1.

           pastedImage_0.png

2.

pastedImage_1.png

Hope I helped

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KetekGroup
Contributor
Contributor

Thank you,

I will look into this. I have not looked at UEM yet. is Persona Management EOL?

I am doing a quick test right now by adding the registry entries to HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT on the gold image. I am hoping then they get propagated into the new user entries when they are created. While I wait for the test gold image to process I will look at UEM.

What license level of Horizon includes UEM?

I will report back with my results.

Thank You!

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KetekGroup
Contributor
Contributor

Also, UEM... does it do all the profile relocation?

I am not only using Persona Management for Folder redirection but it is complete user profile relocation for all user data.

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liorshe
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hi,

Yes UEM do all the profile relocation. -

pastedImage_0.png                     Capture.JPG        

I do not know if Persona Management  is EOL .... but the UEM is much simpler and advanced than the Persona.

About the problem with  Folder Redirection that you have in windows 10 This happens because of the tool  that you runs "VMware OS Optimization Tool" on yours Golden Images.

link-

VMware OS Optimization Tool - Bugs

I Open a Case , but unfortunately, although they said that the problem was solve, it did not.

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KetekGroup
Contributor
Contributor

Hi There,

I have setup UEM but I am having a problem. On the VM when I try and run FlexEngine.exe -r I get an error.

I followed the install PDF's but I can not figure this out:

When I manually run the program as above I get:

archive argument missing

I am at a loss why this is happening...

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KetekGroup
Contributor
Contributor

Ok I figured it out.

In Windows 10 1607 most of the user settings GPO's never actually work (I have latest 1607 ADMX from Jan 2017). So the UEM GPO settings were not applying. So the ONLY way to get it to work is to load the ADMX/ADML Files onto the Local VM and then local GPEDIT to set the settings. Now it is working. Windows 10 1511 worked fine with User Settings GPO's but with 1607 they almost all quit working.

One thing I am NOT happy about with UEM is that all current data is NOT copied to new folder relocation folders. It only starts placing NEW data there. This makes it USELESS for existing users.

Persona Management actually MOVED the existing folders to the new location.

So right now from my point of view UEM is actually not as good as Persona Management. At lest Persona Management is working properly without needing to edit local GPO;

VMware OS-Optimization guys need to fix this problem so Persona Management works (It is working perfectly except the folder links that are broken).

How can they make UEM and not even make the basic essential feature of moving users existing data to the new location. Even Persona Management does it without issue.

This stuff drives me crazy... nothing EVER works properly... every single product always has some problem or shortfall. How hard is it to release a product that just WORKS.

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liorshe
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I understand the situation you are in, I also went through it ... until I came to the conclusion that with UEM life is much easier.

There is an Guide - How to migrate VMware Persona Management to VMware User Environment Manager -

https://blogs.vmware.com/consulting/files/2015/09/UEM-Migrations_v3.pdf

How to migrate VMware Persona Management to VMware User Environment Manager (2118056) | VMware KB

You don't most use UEM folder redirection to Run the Key reg..... You can continue use with Persona Folder Redirection and use Uem Environment to Add Keys reg for your users.

I saw that you also wrote to them about the problem in the case I opened on VMware OS-Optimization , Unfortunately, I did not think they would fix it soon.

By the way,
I'm not working on VMWARE.
I'm a client like you  :slightly_smiling_face:

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KetekGroup
Contributor
Contributor

I agree thank you.

We have not yet implemented Persona Management either. We have our Horizon in place and I was just working on this... when I had the problem I saw your stuff about UEM.

I think I am going to get Persona Management working and then I will use UEM for other settings.

I just shake my head... how hard is it to have a single solution that works.

I will try and do the registry entries with UEM and see if that works. When I manually added the registry entries to HKEY_CURRENT_USER manually it never fixed the problem. the ONLY way in Windows 10 Enterprise (1607) to get the registry keys to work is to add them to HKEY_USERS into the specific profile folder for the user (this does not work for general deployment).

I will test anyways to see if UEM can make it work.

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TechMassey
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

I wish you luck, and I understand the challenges all too well.

One recommendation, well two actually.

1. Checkout GPO Folder redirection. I use it and it works perfectly.

2. Don't let Personal management redirect the local/remote appdata folder. The worse problem is broken start menu in Windows 10 but many other issues can occur.

3. OK, three recommendations. I have been using Horizon View for over 5 years and free (persona management) never means pain free. I HIGHLY suggest checking out Liquidware.com. They not only avoid all the issues you mentioned but I have windows 10 working....with start menu being saved on logoff.


Please help out! If you find this post helpful and/or the correct answer. Mark it! It helps recgonize contributions to the VMTN community and well me too :slightly_smiling_face:
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