Support Roaming Users

[This is preliminary documentation and subject to change.]

Best Practice   (Designed for Microsoft® Windows® Logo)

Note This guideline applies to any products offered for sale under a site-license. This guideline does not apply to an application that is sold only at retail to consumers for a single user license, such as a game.

User settings should be able to move automatically from computer to computer on a network, following a user wherever that user logs on. Examples of user settings include customized toolbars, any dynamic user-generated lists, or other user-specific options.

Remarks

Recommendations for handling user registry keys:

• Store all per-user registry keys in HKEY_CURRENT_USER (HKCU). Since the user profile includes the Ntuser.dat file (which contains the HKCU hive), the user registry keys will roam with the user.
• Store all per-computer keys in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE (HKLM).
• Do not assume that any HKCU keys have been set.
• Do not assume that any keys initialized in HKCU during installation will be set correctly at a later time. New users can roam to a computer and will not have any HKCU keys for your application.
• Applications should detect the lack of required keys and automatically create them using smart defaults.

Recommendations for handling user application data:

• Store all user-specific application information not stored in the registry in the user's profile Application Data folder. Use the same hierarchical structure in the Application Data folder as that which is used in HKEY_CURRENT_USER:

  Application Data\
    Software\
      [company name]\
        [product name]\
          [version]\
            [your top level]\

• Do not assume that the content of the user's profile Application Data folder you initialized during installation will be set correctly at a later time.
• Place user data into the user's My Documents (previously named Personal) folder.