In case you are administrator of either terminal servers or Citrix\XenApp servers, I am sure you know small life-saver called UPHClean – User Profile Hive Cleanup service. To explain problem that was there since Windows 2000 server:

it happens quite often that driver or application leaks registry\file handles (it opens handle, however doesn’t properly close it afterwards), therefore profile cannot be unloaded. This leads to situation where you have tons of similar profiles (MZugec, MZugec.000, MZugec.001…) and user experience is that their settings are reset to default (because new profile is loaded for them).

This was major pain with roaming profiles – because profile is not unloaded correctly, it cannot be copied back to central profile storage. Microsoft released utility called UPHClean to solve this situation – it was real life saver.

You can read KB from Microsoft with details about that problem: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/837115/en-us.

Now, some mythbusting Problem with profiles that were not unloaded is very common. Also very common recommendation from almost every SBC consultant is – always install UPHClean. However that’s not completely true.

Always install UPHClean if you are running Windows 2003 Server or OLDER operating system.

Since Windows Vista\2008 and newer, we have UPHClean 1.6 included in operating system – it is part of User Profile Service service.

There are however still issues that are not solved by ProfSvc as far as I know – for example hgfs.dat file from VMWare or hsperfdata from Sun (it’s not bug, it’s a feature ). I tried to contact Robin (creator of UPHClean) regarding his future plans, I will share those details with you once he replies.

Therefore, UPHClean is now officially dormant. There are many other changes to user profiles in Vista\7, I would like to share them with future (like using Win32_UserProfile to migrate profiles from workgroup to domain).

Do you still have issues with profiles not being unloaded at logoff? Share it with us in the comments.

Martin Zugec

Tip no. 2 from Win7 Inside Out can be categories as myth busting. “GodMode” in Windows 7 is currently very popular myth and I don’t like myths at all

Trick is very simple – just create folder called GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C} anywhere on your system and you will get access to secret folder with many different options.

In reality, you DON’T get access to any new options or features.

In Windows 7 (and also previous version), you could create easily links to shell folders. Idea is very simple – you see folder XXX in explorer and using that folder, you can access features. Probably most known folder of this type in Windows 7 is folder called Libraries – that’s true, it is just folder and libraries themselves are just XML files (more details later on).

These folders are identified using GUID and can be found in registry key HKLM\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID. As a rule of thumb (doesn’t always apply), you can say that if key contains ShellFolder subkey AND property LocalizedString, you can use it.

To access such folders from your computer, simply create folder in format FolderName.GUID. For example try to create following folder on your desktop:

SecretLogon.{0142e4d0-fb7a-11dc-ba4a-000ffe7ab428}

As you can see, as soon as you hit enter it turned out automatically to folder with name SecretLogon and icon changed also:

When you try to click on it, secret backdoor that allows Microsoft employees to logon to your computer will appear (just kidding – it’s simply link to Biometric from Control panel):

 

Well, so called “GodMode” is nothing else than accessing already existing entries from control panel. Not sure how about you, but I prefer instant search to searching through tons of configuration options.

Just for reference, below are some GUIDs that you can also use.

Fingerprint – {0142e4d0-fb7a-11dc-ba4a-000ffe7ab428}

Power options – {025A5937-A6BE-4686-A844-36FE4BEC8B6D}

Libraries – {031E4825-7B94-4dc3-B131-E946B44C8DD5}

Wifi – {1FA9085F-25A2-489B-85D4-86326EEDCD87}

Computer – {20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}

There is however something I learned today myself SkyDrive Explorer that was mentioned by Dennis recently is also implemented through shell folders. So if you don’t want to access it through Computer, but want to help link somewhere else, simply create folder SkyDrive.{0016CE0E-728C-4FC9-98E5-D0B35B384597}

UPDATE: Complete list of control panel items that are accessible can be found here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee330741(VS.85).aspx

 

Martin Zugec