Profile Management

Include and exclude items

As a prerequisite, ensure that you understand how inclusions and exclusions work. For more information, see Include and exclude items. For information on the default included and excluded items, see Default inclusions and exclusions.

Use Enter to separate multiple entries when you include and exclude items.

To exclude items

  1. Under Profile Management > Registry, click the Exclusion list policy.

  2. Select Enabled.

  3. Click Show and add any registry keys in the HKCU hive that you do not want Profile Management to synchronize during logoff. Example: Software\Policies.

  4. Under Profile Management > File system, double-click the Exclusion list - directories policy.

  5. Select Enabled.

  6. Click Show and add any folders that you do not want Profile Management to synchronize.

    Be aware of the following:

    • Specify the folders using paths relative to the user profile (%USERPROFILE%) and omit initial backslashes from paths.
    • Use the variable %USERPROFILE% to locate the profile but do not enter the variable itself in this policy.
    • As of Profile Management 2112, wildcards in folder names are supported but are not applied recursively.

      Examples:

      • Desktop. Does not synchronize the Desktop folder.
      • MyApp\tmp. Does not synchronize the %USERPROFILE%\MyApp\tmp folder.
  7. Under Profile Management > File system, double-click the Exclusion list - files policy.

  8. Select Enabled.

  9. Click Show and add any files that you do not want Profile Management to synchronize.

    Be aware of the following:

    • Specify the file names with paths relative to the user profile (%USERPROFILE%). Do not enter the variable (%USERPROFILE%) in this policy.
    • Wildcards in file names are supported and applied recursively. As of Profile Management 7.15, you can use the vertical bar (|) to restrict the policy only to the current folder.
    • As of Profile Management 2112, wildcards in folder names are supported but are not applied recursively.

      Examples:

      • Desktop\Desktop.ini. Ignores Desktop.ini in the Desktop folder.
      • AppData\*.tmp. Ignores all files with the .tmp extension in the AppData folder and its subfolders.
      • AppData\*.tmp|. Ignores all files with the .tmp extension only in the AppData folder.
      • Downloads\*\a.txt. Ignores a.txt in any immediate subfolder of the Downloads folder.

If Exclusion list is disabled, no registry keys are excluded. If this setting is not configured here, the value from the .ini file is used. If this setting is not configured here or in the .ini file, no registry keys are excluded.

If Exclusion list - directories is disabled, no folders are excluded. If this setting is not configured here, the value from the .ini file is used. If this setting is not configured here or in the .ini file, no folders are excluded.

If Exclusion list - files is disabled, no files are excluded. If this setting is not configured here, the value from the .ini file is used. If this setting is not configured here or in the .ini file, no files are excluded.

For your changes to take effect, run the gpupdate /force command from the command prompt as documented at https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/gpupdate.

To include items

Tip:

You can include specific top-level folders. In a collaborative environment, this step has the advantage of flagging critical folders to other administrators.

  1. Under Profile Management > Registry, double-click the Inclusion list policy.

  2. Select Enabled.

  3. Click Show and add any profile-related registry keys in the HKEY\_CURRENT\_USER hive that you want Profile Management to process during logoff. Example: Software\Adobe.

  4. Under Profile Management > File system > Synchronization, double-click the Directories to synchronize policy.

  5. Select Enabled.

  6. Click Show and add folders that are inside excluded folders but that you want Profile Management to synchronize. Example: Desktop\exclude\include ensures that the include subfolder is synchronized even if the folder Desktop\exclude is not.

    Be aware of the following:

    • Specify the folders using paths relative to the user profile.
    • As of Profile Management 2112, wildcards in folder names are supported but are not applied recursively.
  7. Under Profile Management > File system > Synchronization, double-click the Files to synchronize policy.

  8. Select Enabled.

  9. Click Show and add files that are inside excluded folders but that you want Profile Management to synchronize.

    Be aware of the following:

    • Specify the files with paths relative to the user profile.
    • Wildcards in file names are supported and applied recursively. But wildcards cannot be nested. As of Profile Management 7.15, you can use the vertical bar (|) to restrict the policy only to the current folder so that the policy does not apply to the subfolders.
    • As of Profile Management 2112, wildcards in folder names are supported but are not applied recursively.

      Examples:

      • AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\Access.qat. Specifies a file inside a folder that is excluded in the default configuration.
      • AppData\Local\MyApp\*.cfg. Specifies all files with the .cfg extension in the AppData\Local\MyApp folder and its subfolders.
      • Downloads\*\a.txt. Specifies a.txt in any immediate subfolder of the Downloads folder.
    • Profile Management synchronizes each user’s entire profile between the system it is installed on and the user store. It is not necessary to include files in the user profile by adding them to this list.

If Inclusion list is not configured here, the value from the .ini file is used. If this setting is not configured here or in the .ini file, the entire HKEY_CURRENT_USER hive is processed.

If Directories to synchronize is not configured here, the value from the .ini file is used. If this setting is not configured here or in the .ini file, only non-excluded folders in the user profile are synchronized. Disabling this setting has the same effect as enabling it and configuring an empty list.

If Files to synchronize is not configured here, the value from the .ini file is used. If this setting is not configured here or in the .ini file, only non-excluded files in the user profile are synchronized. Disabling this setting has the same effect as enabling it and configuring an empty list.

For your changes to take effect, run the gpupdate /force command from the command prompt as documented at https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/gpupdate.

Include and exclude items