I have a Windows 11 PC with a local profile that needs to join a domain with folder redirection enabled. Can ForensiT User Profile Wizard preserve the user's settings, Outlook, mapped drives, and printers?
Can I join a Windows 11 PC to a domain without losing the existing profile?
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2e!portthimble_748
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User Profile Wizard is designed to associate the existing local profile with a domain account. You can join the PC to the domain first, reboot, then run the wizard and select the local profile and the domain account. The wizard can also perform the domain join as part of the process.
Afterward, sign in as the domain user and check the profile and applications. It can preserve a lot, but I wouldn't promise that every setting or connection will be intact.
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Back up the user's data first and record the settings that would be a pain to recreate. There are reports of successful migrations, but also a report of profiles being lost, so test the process before relying on it for an important account.
Folder redirection adds another change to the mix. Check the redirected folders and their contents after the domain sign-in, along with Outlook, drive mappings, and printers.
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Plan on some cleanup. Browser passwords and default app associations can be quirky after a profile migration, and the user may need to sign back in to their browser profile and email. Windows search indexing may also rebuild.
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For the same PC, you're looking at the profile conversion tool. ForensiT also has a separate tool for saving a profile to a file and applying it on another computer, so make sure you're using the one that fits the job.
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3u+signalspoon_641:
Run the migration while signed in as a separate local or domain administrator, not as the account whose profile you're migrating.