What Is A Mandatory User Profile?
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Normally when a user logs off their computer, their personal settings are changed. So if a user changes the color of the desktop, this change will be saved when they log off. However, you may not want any changes saved when a user logs off. In such cases, you can implement a mandatory user profile.
A mandatory user profile prevents any changes from being saved when a user logs off the computer. For example, if they make changes to the desktop, these changes will be discarded when the user logs off.
Once you have a mandatory user profile created and saved to a shared folder as Ntuser.man, you can assign it to a user profile. In Windows Server 2003, complete the following steps:
- Click Start and click Control Panel.
- Double click the Administrative Tools applet.
- Double click the Computer Management applet.
- Expand the following: System Tools/ Local Users and Groups/Users.
- In the right pane, right click the user account you want to assign a mandatory profile to.
- On the Profile tab, type in the path to the location of the mandatory user profile (Ntuser.man).
- Click OK.
Any changes made by the user will no longer be saved when they log off the local computer.

One Comment
Anirudh Goel
September 24th, 2007
at 7:20am
hi pal! your guide is really good but i have a doubt. In our college environment we have a network logon of 1200 studnets. and on each machine whenever a student logs in a new folder is created in documents and settings/. this is a bad thing as hard disk gets cluttered easily, so i understand the mandatory profile comes to the rescue however i still have a doubt.
when i login with a user who has mandatory profile configured does he still get a personalized folder in documents and settings/?
if he does.. does windows delete it once he logs off!?
or if it is not created then where is the mandatory profile configuration cached and stored?