or connections that differ for certain parts of the profile.
Microsoft provides an alternate solution for roaming the user’s settings, called User
Experience Virtualization (UE-V), which is available as part of the Microsoft Desktop
Optimization Pack (MDOP). UE-V is enabled per application in addition to basic
desktop settings. The locations in the registry and the filesystem for the user settings
for each application are defined and therefore should be captured and virtualized by
UE-V. This allows granularity in which application settings should be roamed between
user environments, and each application has its own setting store, enabling much
more flexible synchronization of settings. Let’s imagine that a user has two logon
sessions, their local Windows 10 PC and a Windows 2016 Remote Desktop Services
session, and walk through the experience of using roaming profiles. I should point out
that sharing a profile between a Windows 10 desktop and a 2016 RDS server is not
recommended, but it helps you to see the problem.
1 . In the Windows 10 session, the user launches PowerPoint, customizes the
environment, and then closes PowerPoint.
2 . In the 2016 session, the user launches PowerPoint, and none of the customizations
made on the Windows 10 session are available. The user sets different
customizations and then logs out of the 2016 session, at which point roaming
profiles replicate the new profile.
3 . The user logs out of the Windows 10 session, and the profile overwrites that of the
2016 session.With UE-V, which has been configured to virtualize settings for Microsoft Office, this
is what happens:
1 . In the Windows 10 session, the user launches PowerPoint. As the application
launches, the UE-V service hooks into the application, pausing the start, and
checks for any updates to the settings package for PowerPoint from the UE-V
remote repository, which is just a file share. If there is an updated settings
package, the UE-V service synchronizes the application by using offline files to a
local cache, and the application starts using the settings in the settings package
exposed by the UE-V service. The UE-V service provides the technology to inject
the user’s application settings that are stored in the registry and filesystem onto
their current OS as the application starts and then saves them back to the UE-V
settings package when the application closes. This allows the abstraction of the
application settings from the OS without any changes being needed by the
application. The user now customizes the environment and then closes
PowerPoint. As the application is closed, UE-V saves the updated settings to the
settings package for the application and writes to the remote repository.
2 . In the 2016 session, the user launches PowerPoint, and once again UE-V hooks
into the application and pulls down and presents the user’s customizations. Now
the user sees the changes made in the Windows 10 session for PowerPoint and can
get on with their work. If they make changes to the application settings, then upon