Fix for Windows ''cannot copy index.dat... logging in with temporary user profile'' issue

There is an ocassional problem for users: when they login to a CHFA Windows 2000 or XP machine their roaming user profile (aka user preferences) are not copied from the server to that workstation. The error message is

Windows cannot copy file \\mercury\rup\%USERNAME%\Cookies\index.dat to location C:\Documents and Settings\%USERNAME%\Cookies\index.dat. Possible causes of this error include network problems or insufficient security rights. If this problem persists, contact your network administrator.

Followed by one of the following two messages:

Windows cannot find the local profile and is logging you on with a temporary profile. Changes you make to this profile will be lost when you log off.

Or:
Windows cannot log you on because your profile cannot be loaded. Check that you are connected to the network, or that your network is functioning correctly. If this problem persists, contact your network administrator.

DETAIL - The parameter is incorrect.

The Cookies\index.dat file keeps track of cookies for the Internet Explorer web browser. In order for you to have the same cookies available at all computers in the College - these files are copied to each workstation that you login at. Since this is a luxury, and has proven to be more troublesome than worthwhile - we have excluded the cookies folder from the roaming user profile. This means your cookies will stay on your personally assigned office machine (if you have one) - but they will not be available in a lab or classroom machine that you log into. So personalized web pages will request your user information again when you access them from another machine. Hopefully this proves to be a slight inconvenience that solves a larger inconvenience (having to reboot/restart the machine in order to login sucessfully).


Information posted by Chris Conklin, 12/10/2003 3:34:34 PM.