Configure cross-platform settings
Important: Note the following important information for this feature:
- Cross-platform settings in Profile Management support a set of supported operating systems (OSs) and applications. Configure this feature only in a production environment.
- Microsoft Office settings do not roam between versions of that application. For more information, see Operating systems and applications supported By cross-platform settings.
- This feature is suitable for registry and application settings. It is not for files or folders, or objects typically used with folder redirection (for example, browser favorites, and desktop and Start menu settings).
- If you use this feature to migrate user profiles between systems with different profile versions, disable it after the migration has been completed for all users. There is some performance impact, primarily to logoffs, when using this feature. So it is best to leave it disabled unless you support roaming between profile versions.
This topic contains an example of the steps you can take to configure cross-platform settings. For a more detailed case study, see Cross-platform settings - Case study.
Tip: We recommend restricting this feature to a small, test set of users before putting it into production. Use the Cross-platform settings user groups option to achieve it. If this setting is configured, the cross-platform settings feature of Profile Management processes only members of these user groups. If this setting is disabled, the feature processes all the users specified by the Processed groups setting. If Cross-platform settings user groups is not configured in Group Policy or the .ini file, all user groups are processed.
- For the settings that are common to all platforms, create a common Group Policy Object (common GPO), link it to the Profile Management .adm or .admx file, and configure the settings as required. This setup is best practice because it minimizes duplicate settings that can make any later troubleshooting awkward. Depending on your requirements, all Profile Management settings work on multiple platforms except Path to user store. Configure Path to user store separately for each platform due to the different user store structures of Version 1 and Version 2 profiles. In the common GPO, leave this setting unconfigured.
- Create separate OUs for your different platforms. For example, if you are migrating from Windows 7 to Windows 8, create separate OUs for these operating systems), and set Path to user store appropriately in each OU.
- Locate the definition (.xml) files for the supported applications whose personalizations you want to work across the platforms. These files are located in the CrossPlatform folder in the download package. You can create your own application definition files. For details, see Create a definition file.
- Copy the .xml files to a suitable location on your network.
- Edit the common GPO in Group Policy Management Editor. Under Profile Management open the Cross-platform settings folder and configure these settings:
- Cross-platform settings user groups. Restricts the users who experience cross-platform settings. This setting is optional. It is useful when testing this feature or rolling it out in stages.
- Path to cross-platform definitions. Identifies the network location of the definition files that you copied from the download package. This path must be a UNC path. Users must have read access to this location, and administrators must have write access to it. The location must be a Server Message Block (SMB) or Common Internet File System (CIFS) file share.
- Path to cross-platform settings store. It is the common area of the user store where profile data shared by multiple platforms is located. Users must have write access to this area. The path can be an absolute UNC path or a path relative to the home directory. You can use the same variables as for Path to user store.
- Specify a base platform by ensuring Source for creating cross-platform settings is set to Enabled in that platform’s OU. This setting migrates data from the base platform’s profiles to the cross-platform settings store. In the other platforms’ OUs, set this policy to Disabled or Unconfigured. Each platform’s own set of profiles are stored in a separate OU. You must decide which platform’s profile data to use to seed the cross-platform settings store. This is referred to as the base platform. If the cross-platform settings store contains a definition file with no data, or the cached data in a single-platform profile is newer than the definition’s data in the store, Profile Management migrates the data from the single-platform profile to the store unless you disable this setting. Important: If Source for creating cross-platform settings is enabled in multiple OUs, the platform that the first user logs on to becomes the base profile.
- Set Enable cross-platform settings to Enabled. By default, to facilitate deployment, cross-platform settings is disabled until you turn on this setting.
- Run a Group Policy update.
- If you are migrating profiles across platforms but not supporting roaming of them, when the migration is complete, set Enable cross-platform settings to Disabled.
If Path to cross-platform definitions 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 cross-platform settings are applied.
If Path to cross-platform settings store is disabled, the default path Windows\PM_CP is used. 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, the default path is used.
If Enable cross-platform settings 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 cross-platform settings are applied.
Example: Roaming Microsoft Office settings between Windows Server 2008 and Windows 7
This example describes the major steps involved in allowing users’ application settings to roam between two operating systems that create Version 2 profiles. Microsoft Office 2010 is the example application, and roaming takes places between Citrix XenApp 6.5 on Windows Server 2008 and Windows 7. Both OSs are 64-bit.
- Users are accustomed to accessing Office 2010 and Internet Explorer 9 as published applications on Citrix virtual apps servers, and change several settings in these applications. For example, they modify their email signature in Office and choose a new home page in Internet Explorer.
- At a future date, virtual desktops (created with Citrix Virtual Desktops) are created but not yet released to users. The desktops run Windows 7 and are preconfigured with Office 2010 and Internet Explorer 9.
- The users expect their settings to be the same on their new desktops. You configure the cross-platform settings feature according to the procedure in this topic. It includes enabling Source for creating cross-platform settings in the OU for Windows Server 2008.
- When users next run the published versions of the applications (not the new, virtual desktops), their settings are copied to the cross-platform settings store.
- The new desktops are then released to users. When they log on and run the local versions of Office and Internet Explorer, the settings from the earlier Windows Server 2008 sessions are used. Users’ modified email signatures and home pages are available on their Windows 7 machines.
- Users browse in Internet Explorer from their virtual desktop, and decide to change their home page again.
- Users log off and leave work. They don’t have access to their virtual desktop at home, but they can run the published version of Internet Explorer 9 remotely. They find their most recent home page, created on Windows 7 in the previous step, has been preserved.