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Profile Management
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Automatic migration of existing application profiles

August 6, 2024
Contributed by: 
C C

Profile Management provides a solution that can automatically migrate existing application profiles. The application profiles include both the application data in the AppData folder and the registry entries under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE.

This feature can be useful in cases where you want to migrate your application profiles across different operating systems (OSs). For example, suppose you upgrade your OS from Windows 10 version 1803 to Windows 10 version 1809. If this feature is enabled, Profile Management automatically migrates the existing application settings to Windows 10 version 1809 the first time each user logs on. As a result, the application data in the AppData folder and the registry entries under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE are migrated. Users no longer need to configure the applications again.

Note:

This feature requires you to specify the short name of the OS by including the !CTX_OSNAME! variable in the user store path.
This feature currently supports Windows 10 1909 and earlier, Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2016, and Windows Server 2012 R2.

This feature is disabled by default. To enable it in Group Policy, complete the following steps:

  1. Open the Group Policy Management Editor.
  2. Under Policies > Administrative Templates: Policy definitions (ADMX files) > Citrix Components > Profile Management > Profile handling, double-click the Automatic migration of existing application profiles policy.
  3. Select Enabled and then click OK.

For your changes to take effect, run the gpupdate /force command from the command prompt. Log off from all sessions and then log on again. For more information, see https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/gpupdate.

You can also choose to configure the Profile Management policies in Citrix Studio. To do so, complete the following steps:

  1. In the left pane of Citrix Studio, click Policies.
  2. In the Create Policy window, type the policy in the search box. For example, type “Automatic migration of existing application profiles.”
  3. Click Select to open the Automatic migration of existing application profiles policy.
  4. Select Enabled and then click OK.

How it works

Profile Management performs the migration when a user logs on and there are no user profiles in the user store. Before the migration starts, Profile Management locates the application profiles to be migrated. It does so through automatic discovery. It automatically locates and migrates the following:

  • Application settings under %userprofile%\Appdata\Local\ and %userprofile%\Appdata\Roaming. The following Microsoft folders that contain the current OS platform information are ignored:

     -  %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Temp
 -  %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Packages
 -  %userprofile%\AppData\Local\TileDataLayer
 -  %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Temp
 -  %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Credentials
 -  %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows
 -  %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\InputPersonalization
 -  %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Side bars
 -  %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps
 -  %userprofile%\Appdata\Roaming\Microsoft\Credentials
 -  %userprofile%\Appdata\Roaming\Microsoft\SystemCertificates
 -  %userprofile%\Appdata\Roaming\Microsoft\Crypto
 -  %userprofile%\Appdata\Roaming\Microsoft\Vault
 -  %userprofile%\Appdata\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows

  • Registry keys under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE and HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node (except for HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft and HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Classes)

If there are multiple existing application profiles, Profile Management performs the migration in the following order of priority:

  1. Profiles of the same OS type (single-session OS to single-session OS and multi-session OS to multi-session OS).
  2. Profiles of the same Windows OS family; for example, Windows 10 to Windows 10, or Windows Server 2016 to Windows Server 2016).
  3. Profiles of an earlier version of the OS; for example, Windows 7 to Windows 10, or Windows Server 2012 to Windows 2016.
  4. Profiles of the closest OS.

Note:

You must specify the short name of the OS by including the !CTX_OSNAME! variable in the user store path. Doing so lets Profile Management locate the existing application profiles.

Suppose you configure the user store path as \\fileserver\userstore\%username%\!CTX_OSNAME!!CTX_OSBITNESS! and your OS is Windows 10 version 1803 64-bit (Win10RS4x64). Profile Management first locates the previous profile folder and then migrates it to the application profile folder in the user store in the following order:

  1. \fileserver\userstore\user1\Win10RS3x64
  2. \fileserver\userstore\user1\Win10RS2x64
  3. \fileserver\userstore\user1\Win10RS1x64
  4. \fileserver\userstore\user1\Win10x64
  5. \fileserver\userstore\user1\Win10RS5x64
  6. \fileserver\userstore\user1\Win10RS6x64
  7. \fileserver\userstore\user1\Win8x64
  8. \fileserver\userstore\user1\Win7x64
  9. \fileserver\userstore\user1\Win2016
  10. \fileserver\userstore\user1\Win2012R2
  11. \fileserver\userstore\user1\Win2012
  12. \fileserver\userstore\user1\Win2008
  13. \fileserver\userstore\user1\Win2019

If none of them is available, Profile Management ends the migration process and returns an error.

Automatic migration of existing application profiles
August 6, 2024
Contributed by: 
C C
August 6, 2024
Contributed by: 
C C

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