Each user account in Windows is connected to a user profile that defines several important parameters like the types of applications that are available for that user, information about files and shortcuts on the desktop, visual settings like screen size, network and printer connections, wallpapers and data like the Internet cache.
From an administrator’s point of view lots of things that can be altered in a way that make the computer or part of it unusable for that user. This can happen in a family that is sharing a computer as well if someone who is not that proficient with computers changes certain settings all the time or likes to “tweak” settings to optimize the computer.
There is a very easy way to prevent users of a computer to change the settings in their user profile permanently. They can still change everything but those settings will only be temporarily changed.
This can be done by changing the NTUSER.DAT file into a NTUSER.MAN file for that user. Windows automatically recognizes the profile as a mandatory profile from then on. The NTUSER.DAT file is located in the user’s %USERNAME% directory, usually c:\documents and settings\username\. This should work on all Windows NT operating systems including Windows XP and Windows Vista.
Tags: mandatory profiles, ntuser.dat, ntuser.man, user profiles, Windows, windows tips
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