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What is a profile?
| A Windows user's profile allows the user to have a personalized desktop environment. The desktop environment includes the content and arrangement of Start Menu groups, screen colors, network and printer connections, and mouse / keyboard settings. While a user is logged on, changes made to the desktop environment are saved to their user profile. |
| The type of profiles used on the managed desktop are called “Roaming Profiles”. This means that a user’s personalised desktop environment is available to them on whatever managed workstation they use after login. This is because a user’s changes to their profile are uploaded to university servers during the logout process. Therefore when the user next logs into a managed workstation, their saved profile is downloaded to the local machine the user is currently working on, with all the changes they have made during previous sessions. This is why you should avoid turning the computer off by holding the power button, because the changes to your profile will not be saved back to our servers. |
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What is a Home Directory and where is it?
| A Home Directory (or Filestore) is a place on the university network where a user should store their files. These files are accessible from any university computer once the user has logged on. The Home Directory is also where files placed on the desktop or in My Documents are stored, along with the user’s application settings. |
| The Home Directory is accessible on the U: drive whilst the user is logged in or over the internet via myFilestore. |
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Why does a profile get corrupted?
| There are many reasons why profiles can become corrupted. They range from data loss whilst the profile is being transferred over the network, to an application changing something it shouldn’t. Unfortunately due to the varied nature of the causes it isn’t always possible to prevent this from happening. However CiCS do have procedures in place to “reset” corrupted profiles, without losing your files. |
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What happens at login & logout?
| User profiles are downloaded from our servers when a user logs on and uploaded with any changes when the user logs off, therefore large user profiles degrade system performance. Not only do they cause long login delays for the user, but they use excessive network capacity and waste the processing power of the profile servers, degrading system performance for all users. |
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Why is it important to store data in the right place?
| If large amounts of data are put in your profile (C:\Documents and Settings\) it will increase the time it takes to log in/out of the managed desktop and files may become corrupted upon logout without warning. This data will also be inaccessible via myFilestore, less secure and less likely to be recoverable should the data be lost due to an unforeseen system malfunction because profile data backups are not stored as long as Home Directory data. |
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I can't find an application on the Managed Desktop Service
Applications can be found in two locations:
1. From the Program menu which can be accessed by clicking the Start button and clicking the Program icon on the menu.
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2. From the Application menu, which is not loaded at start up. In order to get this menu to display:
From the top of the Start menu, click on the Load Application Menu icon or double click on the Load Application Menu icon on your Desktop.
There will then be a short delay while the menu is loaded and then an Application Menu icon will be loaded onto the top of your Start menu.
Various teaching applications are available from this menu and they are arranged into different submenus depending on the subject area for which they are used. Please remember you may have to look in more than one folder for the applications you want to run. |
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Can I install my own applications?
Users of Student Managed Desktop Service:
Student users cannot install applications on this service.
University staff, on the basis of academic need, may request that applications be installed on the Student Managed Desktop Service. To make such a request, they must fill in the application form from the Installing Applications webpage.
Users of Staff Managed Desktop Service:
Staff users cannot install applications on this service.
However, departments may request a local installation username and password which allows them to install applications on PCs owned by their department. |
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As the most commonly used programs, such as Word or Internet Explorer, are available from the Program menu, the majority of users do not need to run programs from the Application Menu.
If the menu were to load when a user first logged in, the log in and start up process would take a lot longer. |
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When this menu is loaded, the system checks whether you have rights to use all the applications which are available on all CiCS Managed Desktop services, not just those you see on the menu.
As there are (currently) around about 350 applications on the Managed Desktop Services this can take some time. |
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| The files and settings that are necessary for the application to run are copied from our servers to the local computer and the user’s profile. If the application has been run on the computer before and the user has run the application before the files should already be present and the process will simply launch the application. However if the computer hasn’t already got the necessary files or the user hasn’t run the application before, the relevant files will be copied to where they are required. This is why a user may need to run an application from the Application Menus again if they are using a different workstation from when they last ran the application. Some software packages can take a while to load on the workstation for the first time due to their considerable size having to be transferred over the network. |
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Why don't the Windows keyboard shortcuts work?
| These shortcuts have been disabled as a side effect of disabling the 'lock workstation' function. |
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How do I report a fault with a computer running the Managed Desktop Service?
Students
There is a drop in service run by CiCS in the Computing centre on Hounsfield Road from 9.00am to 5.00pm.
If you are in the Information Commons you can speak to a member of CiCS Staff at the various counters or if you are in one of our unstaffed rooms you can email:
openaccess@shef.ac.uk
Please remember to included details of the room and the number of the PC affected.
If you are using a computer in a Departmental Computing Room, contact the department which provides the room. In many cases there will be a designated support person to whom you can report problems, but if in doubt contact the department enquiry office for the department concerned.
Staff
If you are a member of staff using the Managed Desktop Service you should report faults to the CiCS Helpdesk on ext. 21111 or alternatively, use the CiCS Helpdesk Self Service. Log in to MUSE, under the SSiD (or Staff Applications) tab you will find the CiCS Helpdesk channel. |
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