In past Operating Systems, such as Windows XP, if you wanted to customize the default user profile’s settings, customizations, wallpaper, screen saver, etc that new users would have applied upon first logging into a machine, you’d simply:

[Log in as a local administrator] > Go into User Profiles > [select your customized user profile with the settings you want to be default] > click Copy To button > [choose the location of the Default User folder]

Presto! The next time a user logs in (who doesn’t already have a profile created) will have the customizations applied.

In Windows 7 however, Microsoft decided to disable the ability to copy profiles to the Default profile using this classic method. In fact, the only profile you can copy from is the “Default” profile itself! This prevents you from customizing a profile, and copying it anywhere.

Copy To button operating in Windows XPWindows 7 Copy To button disabled

I spoke with a Microsoft representative who specializes in imaging. She said the only supported method is to use sysprep with the <copyprofile> tag in the unattend.xml file, and running:
sysprep /generalize /unattend:unattend.xml
To make it easier, she suggested MDT2010.

I hope all is well with you! With respect to customizing the default user profile in Windows 7, the only supported option is to use the copyprofile setting in the unattend.xml. Are you using MDT to build your image? If so, enabling this functionality is very simple. Essentially, you would open up the task sequence you are using to create the image and edit the unattend.xml (associated w/ that task sequence) to enable the copyprofile setting. In your task sequence, you can then add a script (or scripts) to customize things like your corporate screen saver, desktop wallpaper, etc. Did I provide you with these scripts when you attended the deployment HOL? If not, let me know and I can stage them on a share for you to download. If you don’t have your customizations scripted you can insert the pause task into your task sequence so that after the OS and apps are installed you can manually make your customizations. After you complete this process, the task sequence will resume and it will automatically sysprep the image (with the copyprofile setting enabled) and capture it as a WIM image.

MDT 2010 scripts mentioned can be downloaded here. These scripts can be used inside and outside of MDT 2010 to automate customizations made to the profile. Download MDT 2010 here.

Sysprep? Well this is good and all if I were going to be implementing Microsoft’s deployment and imaging solutions, but all I wanted to do is customize the default profile. There should be no need go through these complexities for something so simple. Read on for the Solution!

Solution!

Rather than spending hours trying to create/generate an unattend.xml file, performing various reboots, and running into limit for the /generalize switch (you can only generalize 3 times, or up to 9 times with the <SkipRearm> tag), among other headaches, and limiations (such as only being able to copy the administrator profile, then dealing with the deletion of the profile), I decided to think outside of the box.

After browsing various forums, I remembered an OLD utility called “Windows Enabler”. I posted my solution to the Microsoft Technet online forums, and everyone was ecstatic. It worked!
(Click here to visit the post, do a find for my name “Imfusio”. Below that you can see everyone’s testing, and verification procedures.)

1. Download a little freeware program called “Windows Enabler 1.1” Download here.
(It’s a handy little portable utility I keep on my thumb drive and network utilities folder. All you need is the “Windows Enabler.exe” and “EnablerDLL.dll” together in a folder.)

2. Run Windows Enabler *as Administrator* on the Windows 7 machine, and a little blue & white icon will show up in your system tray.
3. Bring up the “Users Profile” window, and select the profile you wish to copy where the button is grayed out.
4. Click on the Windows Enabler icon in your system tray, and it should say “On”
5. Click once on the “Copy To” button, and it should un-gray the button. Click the Windows Enabler icon again to turn it off.
6. Now, you have your Copy To button working! Copy the user profiles as you normally would, and try logging in as a new user on the machine.Click to turn onClick again to turn OFF

Copy to button is now enabled and functioning!

Potential Issues

I tested this method, and it appears functional with only minor issues, just as with XP (for example, the My Documents kept the name of the original profile, ie “temporaryuser’s Documents” while logged in as another user). The Windows 7 resource kit mentions DJs (Directory Junctions) that can become corrupt, and other registry data that is not copied when using this technique, or any other method than that which is supported (sysprep method). However, I was able to copy a profile, and log in with a new user, and everything looks good! I had saw no visible problem with the Directory Junctions, or anything else. I currently have plans to put an image with user profiles created from this method through QA in a corporate environment. I will make note of any issues we run into.

The known issues are very subtle. We’ve been using this process with Windows XP, many of us not even knowing that using that function was not supported, and that issues existed when using this method. However, we never ran into many real problems with it. It is just now that the Copy To button is disabled that we are aware of the potential side effects.

Take a look at this technet artcile: Configuring Default User Profiles – Full update for Windows 7

Windows XP did not support manual copying of profiles either. Here are issues to look out for when using this method.
It is very old procedure from NT4, when the shell was much simpler. The shell is more complicated for Windows 2000 and higher. This process will copy settings that should not be copied to the default user profile. It may seem to work but you will find subtle problems. Windows XP and later have made those subtle problems more visible.

The manual profile copy process can cause issues such as:

  • Their list of most frequently run programs is not cleared
  • Whether the user has been introduced to the Start menu (will be set to TRUE for the source account, but should be FALSE for new users). Windows Explorer does some special things the first time you log on to introduce you to the Start menu and other new features.
  • Whether the user is an administrator (and should therefore see the Administrative Tools, etc).
  • The personalized name for “My Documents” will be incorrect. All users documents folders will be called “Administrator’s Documents”. This is documented in the Knowledge Base article “The Desktop.ini File Does Not Work Correctly When You Create a Custom Default Profile” (http://support.microsoft.com/?id=321281).
  • The default download directory for IE will be set to the Administrator’s Desktop folder.
  • The default Save and Open locations for some application with point to the Administrator’s documents folder.
  • Windows 7 Libraries are broken.

Because of these issues, this process is no longer supported in Windows XP and all later operating systems. Unfortunately, the ability to copy a profile over the Default User profile was not blocked in Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, or Windows Server 2008. This allowed many administrators to continue using the process and putting their Windows installations into an unsupported state. To prevent this, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 now block this scenario by having the Control Panel System applet gray out the option to overwrite the Default User profile.

So take that with a grain of salt, but know that Windows Enabler will be the quickest, most effective way to get the job done with how things currently stand. You will probably see the same negative side effects that you have seen with Windows XP. If copying the profile this method caused problems for you in XP, then you will have the same problems and possibly more with Windows 7. If you had no problem with “Copy To” in Windows XP, then give it a shot in Windows 7 using Windows Enabler – It just might save you a lot of headache in the long run!

Windows Enabler is a great little utility to add to your collection. You never know what you might need it!! :D

Hope that helps!