Windows 7 domain roaming profiles – can i set it up so that only differences are synced with local copy

dfs-rroaming-profilesynchronizationwindows

I have read answers regarding roaming profiles that recommend using folder redirection (like Profile Roaming, to make not to copy all the files to the local PC).

I don't want the profile dirs to be stored on the network and deleted from local each time because i want them to be able to work when there is a server problem too…

But assuming I want an updated copy of the profile (Desktop and My documents) backed up on the domain and also don't want each login/logoff operation to copy all the profile files back and forth(a waste of time)… what is my solution to just sync the differences ?

I also saw this question:
Moving roaming profiles to DFS

Maybe the solution is creating for each user a DFS-R solution between their local profile copy and the central domain one ?

Best Answer

Profile sync only copies differences, so there's no need to use local profiles only. In addition, if a local copy already exists the user is still able to logon when the server copy is unreachable. The local copy is never deleted unless you explicitly specify to do so (http://gpsearch.azurewebsites.net/#2570 and http://gpsearch.azurewebsites.net/#2583 are the two GPO settings to delete local copies of roaming profiles, either immediately or after a given time not being used)