Configure folder redirection
Folder redirection is a feature of Microsoft Windows and can be used with Profile Management. It lets you redirect the paths of local folders to new locations for users. The following folders can be redirected:
- AppData(Roaming)
- Desktop
- Start menu
- Documents
- Pictures
- Music
- Videos
- Favorites
- Contacts
- Downloads
- Links
- Searches
- Saved Games
Important:
Configure folder redirection using only one of these methods: Microsoft Active Directory (AD) GPOs or Citrix policies. Using multiple methods to configure folder redirection might cause unpredictable results.
To configure folder redirection, follow these steps:
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Move applicable users to an OU that Profile Management manages.
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Create a GPO and then open it for editing.
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Navigate to User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Citrix Components > Profile Management > Folder Redirection and then select the folder you want to redirect.
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Open the
Redirect the <folder name> folderpolicy (for example, theRedirect the Desktop folderpolicy), select Enabled, and then type the redirection target path.- Don’t add the redirection target path as exclusions.
- Don’t add user names or folder names to the path. For example, if you set the path to the Desktop folder as
\\server\share\, the folder in the user environment is redirected as\\server\share\<user name>\Desktop.
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For your changes to take effect, run the
gpupdate /forcecommand from the command prompt. For details, see https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/gpupdate.
Note:
- The Documents folder. You can redirect it to the user’s home directory.
- The Music, Pictures, and Videos folders. You can redirect them to folders relative to the Documents folder.
- To change the redirection target path for a folder, follow similar steps described above. By default, Profile Management transfers content from the previous location to the new one when the policy takes effect. To prevent this transfer, select Disable moving contents to new location.
- To disable a folder redirection, set the corresponding policy to Disabled. Alternatively, you can keep the policy as Enabled and select Redirect to the local user profile location.
Grant users access to redirected folders
When folder redirection policies are enabled for a user, the redirection target folders are accessible only to the user and the SYSTEM user. For administration purposes, such as data auditing, you might need to grant administrators Read access to the redirection target folders. To do so, you can use the Users and groups to access redirection target paths policy to grant specific users or groups Read&Execute permission on redirection target folders.
Note:
We recommend using the Users and groups to access redirection target paths policy instead of the Grant administrator permission policy to grant users access to redirection target folders. The Grant administrator permission policy grants members in the Local Administrators group access to the redirection target folders. However, adding users to the Local Administrators group can pose security concerns due to the broad permissions associated with this role.
To complete the task, follow these steps:
- Go to User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Citrix Components > Profile Management > Folder Redirection.
- Double-click the Users and groups to access redirection target paths policy.
- Select Enabled.
- Click Show. A dialog box for specifying users appears.
- In the Value field, enter the required domain users and groups in the format of
<Domain name>\<User name or group name>or use theirSecurity Identifier (SID). Click OK and OK again to save your changes. - For your changes to take effect, run the
gpupdate /forcecommand from the command prompt.
The configuration precedence is as follows:
- If this policy isn’t configured here, the value from the .ini file is used.
- If this policy isn’t configured either here or in the .ini file, redirection target paths are accessible only to the profile owner and the SYSTEM user.
Verify that folder redirection works
To verify that folder redirection works, complete the following steps:
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In a session, navigate to a folder you directed, right-click the folder, and then select Properties.
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In the properties window, navigate to the Shortcut tab and then check the Target field. If the field displays a redirected path, folder redirection works. Otherwise, folder redirection does not work.
Folder redirection logs
Note:
Profile Management writes information to the Windows event log only when folder redirection fails.
Profile Management writes information to the Windows event log. You can view the events in the Application pane of the Windows Event Viewer. The information helps you troubleshoot issues you experience when using the folder redirection feature.