Profile Containers/Disks for Windows desktops enable Administrators to offload the entire user profile to a profile disk (VHD or VMDK). This approach allows for an otherwise large profile to be read at a block-level (very efficient) over the network. Liquidware ProfileUnity features the option to use a ProfileDisk™ and containers in ProfileUnity. They can be great – except when they are not. Here are the Pros and Cons that you should know before you rely solely on a profile container/disk to provide an excellent user experience.
Pros
- Great for offloading Office 365/Outlook caches
- Ideal to solve Outlook indexing conundrums for virtual desktops like XenDesktop, XenApp, and VMware Horizon.
- Really great at keeping cloud storage (Microsoft OneDrive, Dropbox, Amazon Drive, Google Drive, etc) on a virtual network drive.
Cons
- Run in the user context only and therefore can’t pick-up or virtualize other areas of the user profile outside of shell folders.
- Profiles are exactly like a local profile except it is on the network so they are susceptible to profile corruption.
- They are locked to a Windows OS version so you must have a disjointed profile disk/container for every OS the user logs onto, the user cannot migrate their profile or co-exist it with another Windows version.
- Network only – there is no method to go offline. Laptops that even occasionally leave the office are not a candidate for a profile disk/container.
