I've been using Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) for a few years and have only recently run into this issue.
I build a VM completely (applications and Windows profile settings) under the built-in "Administrator" account. While logged in and installing AutoCAD, I set all the support paths (and other Options) to what I want and export that profile to "CADUser.arg"
I then capture that VM as a custom wim file. I create a task sequence to deploy the wim file and I edit the unattend.xml to set the "copyprofile" parameter to "true", thus applying all my settings that I set under the Administrator account to the "Default User" profile so that they apply to anyone that logs into the machine.
Once I deploy the image, I log in (after adding the particular user account to the local "administrators" group in Computer Management), and I open AutoCAD and import the profile ("CADUser.arg"). When I look at the support paths, they are retaining the "C:\Users\Administrator\..." path rather than updating to the currently logged in user path. In the past, this seemed to just work.
What steps am I missing, or what process should I be doing to make sure that the AutoCAD profile (CADUser.arg) that we import is generalized to work for anyone that logs in?
It looks like the registry key "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Autodesk\AutoCAD\R21.0\ACAD-0001:409\RoamableRootFolder" might be the cuplrit and needs to be edited for each new user. I'm just curious how other people are doing their AutoCAD deployments.
Solved! Go to Solution.
Solved by owen66. Go to Solution.
I will tag @TravisNave and @Darin.Green for their input...
As a side note.. MDT in the Autodesk world means Mechanical Desktop.. So when I first started reading your posting I thought you were using Mech Desktop for a while (and then realize based on your subject line you meant Microsoft Deployment toolkit).. So watch your acronyms..
Mark Lancaster
& Autodesk Services MarketPlace Provider
Autodesk Inventor Certified Professional & not an Autodesk Employee
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thanks for the referral - and yeah, i figured my subject line would be the in-road into clarifying *my* MDT use. I'll edit... 🙂
First, you should never copy a profile from one user to the other. The software builds the profile during it's initial launch. That being said, if you're going to copy a profile it should be both the registry and the C:\Users directory. Either way, it will result in the wrong username being used in the software.
The ARG file that you created should only have a hard coded name on line 4 for Username which only indicate where the profile originated. You can verify this by opening the ARG file in notepad and searching for "Administrator" the result should only show 1.
That being said, the issue is copying the profile. Here's what other people are doing:
This way, when the software is installed, everything is already configured (Except for the visual effects). Typically, users setup their theme as they like anyway so no issue there.
Hope that helps.
Thanks,
Darin
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You are correct. The profile path does seem to be hard-coded. Here's what I have been doing:
Before I make the image, I go in to the registry and manually change those keys from C:\Users\Administrator\... to C:\Users\%username%\... and then make the appropriate exports. Once a new user logs in, it will automagically look for the correct local username based on the system variable.
It's crazy how much this issue has come up with internal customers recently.
That should work for you. Let me know if you need any further direction. Thanks for tagging me in this one @Mark.Lancaster.
Thanks,
Travis
Thanks Travis - just gonna go through the steps to be sure i follow... (and i apologize in advance for being insanely pedantic with the instructions - might be some mild autism there 🙂
@TravisNave wrote:
Before I make the image, I go in to the registry and manually change those keys from C:\Users\Administrator\... to C:\Users\%username%\... and then make the appropriate exports.
So, "those keys" are which ones exactly? would editing just the "RoamableRootFolder" value work?
And your "make the appropriate exports" part - is this from the registry, or is this somewhere else like the ACAD profile? Why would you export the registry? If you are referring to the registry, then it seems that you are talking about exporting a key(s) for simple ease of editing where you would do a find and replace on "Administrator" with the sysvar %USERNAME% and then importing that back to the registry. If that's correct, when do I import the reg file back into the registry, just before I capture the image? I assume yes, as then my sysprep "copyprofile" will copy the sysvar to the Default User profile.
And then under what Windows profile should I build my AutoCAD profile? Does it matter if I use Administrator or should I use a new user profile that was built using the sysvar from the registry?
Really appreciate your input! and yes, thanks to @Mark.Lancaster too 🙂
@Anonymous wrote:
First, you should never copy a profile from one user to the other. The software builds the profile during it's initial launch.
Thanks for the reply, but i think i may have been unclear - my "copyprofile" issue is a parameter in Microsoft Deployment Toolkit that can be set to "true" or "false" (or blank) and is the only supported way that Microsoft allows you to configure the "Default User" profile in Windows which is the source for all Windows profiles created on a particular machine. If "copyprofile" is set to "true" then when you deploy your image, sysprep will use the "Administrator" Windows profile (and i believe ONLY that profile) as the source for copying any and all customizations to the "Default User" Windows profile.
Apologies for the confusion on which profiles I was referring to!
And from what Travis has said about seeing this issue crop up a lot recently, I'm wondering if Autodesk changed something - I read someone's comment that 2015 and 2016 deployed differently. We skipped 2016, so maybe they did. Who knows. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@TravisNave, so i made some attempts at the registry... i modified the only the following keys just before capturing the image (replacing "Administrator" with the system variable "%USERNAME%"):
I captured, modified the unattend to enable copyprofile=true and deployed. I logged in to the client computer as local admin (Administrator account), joined the domain, added the user to the local admin group, then logged in as the user. I checked the registry under the user account and the system variable %USERNAME% did copy through to the new user, but when i launch ACAD, it seems like it can't or won't reconcile the variable to the username.
Checking the system variables, i see that USERNAME has a value of "SYSTEM" which obviously won't work. Editing the variable to the username also give an error. The consistent error is this:
So maybe I changed the wrong value?? or didn't change the correct ones??
Thoughts?
Are those the keys i should be editing or are there others?
I would search for any hard-coded "Administrator" username that followed over into the new HKEY Local User section for the new user, assuming you copied the Administrator account over to the Default user login.
I exported the entire key
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Autodesk\AutoCAD\R21.0\ACAD-0001:409
and then did a find and replace on all Administrator (careful to catch a few syntax changes like double-backslashes and such). I also looked up Windows 7 system variables and it seems the %USERPROFILE% is the more accepted method. (i've tried both that in place of C:\Users\{username} and the %USERNAME% in place of only the {username} piece)
No luck.
It's like AutoCAD doesn't see the variables as variables.
Will keep trying...
THE FINAL ANSWER!!
That key I've been on about?
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Autodesk\AutoCAD\R21.0\ACAD-0001:409
Just delete it. Done. ACAD goes through a "installing ACAD" process, but it's only a few seconds, no big deal. Then I can apply profiles and all that.
So now, the process is to just delete that key just before I capture my image and I think it should be good to go.
You should be able to create a .REG file to remove that key for you automagically.
Definitely a creative fix!
The reason we don't care about the profile copy is because the ARG file will set that information. If the profile name in AutoCAD already matches the ARG file name, then loading the ARG file will not do anything.
As a test you can delete the current user...ACAD001:409 folder and it will resolve the issue.
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I think I read somewhere that ACAD looks to some value and if it's not there, it kicks off an installer from the Program Files location that builds out the Reg Keys - I think that's where they come from - built on demand.
I actually DO want to copy profile for larger corporate management preferences outside of AutoCAD 😕
I should also clarify that any and every time i mention "copyprofile" i am referring to the Windows user profile and not anything to do with AutoCAD or ARG files.
Oh well. I think I've got it working now by just wiping that key out before capturing the image.
That is correct, but you should also Delete the %appdata%\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2017 & %appdatalocal%\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2017 directories as well because they all work together with the current user registry entry. < -- By deleting them its called running the secondary installer.
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@owen66 - Oh... that's why you need the profile, I though it was only for CAD users...
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haha - i think we crossed paths - i realized where the confusion was and edited my post above 🙂
re: windows vs acad profiles