Consider the following scenario that occurs in a domain environment:

• You configure the users in the domain to use roaming profiles.
• The folder redirection feature is enabled in the domain.
• The offline folder feature is enabled on the network share on which the users’ roaming profiles and the redirected folders are located.
• The values of all registry entries under the following registry subkeys have been set to the path of the network share:
  • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders
  • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders

In this scenario, when you try to log on to the domain from a Windows Vista-based client computer or from a Windows Server 2008-based client computer, the computer may stop responding.

Consider the following scenario:

• On a computer that is running Windows Server 2008 or Windows Vista, you log on immediately after you have restarted the computer.
• Windows Explorer tries to display the desktop before the Workstation service has started.
• Folder redirection is enabled on the computer.

In this scenario, you may experience one of the following symptoms.

Symptom 1

When you try to access redirected folders, you receive the following error message:

\\servername\Username\sharename is currently unavailable.

Symptom 2

The Documents, Pictures, Music, and Desktop folders are not visible.

Consider the following scenario:

• On a Windows Vista-based computer, you redirect the Desktop folder to a network redirection folder.
• You enable the Always Available offline option to make the Desktop folder available offline.
• The computer is connected to a network that does not contain the redirection folder.
• You restart the computer, and then you enter your user credentials on the Welcome screen to log on to the computer.

In this scenario, you see a black screen for 30 to 120 seconds before the desktop or the Start menu appears.

When you redirect the Documents folder on a Windows Vista-based computer to a network share, the folder name unexpectedly changes back to Documents. You expect the folder name to be the user name.

This behavior may create many Documents folders on the network share. If you try to rename one Documents folder, all the other Documents folders change to that name.

Consider the following scenario:

• On a Windows Vista-based computer, you redirect the Documents folder to a shared folder, and you make the Documents folder available offline.
• The computer has network connections. However, the computer cannot reach the shared folder in the current network environment.

In this scenario, the system is frequently unresponsive for 30 seconds. This behavior occurs regardless of whether you are accessing the files in the shared folder that is unreachable. For example, the system may become unresponsive when you try to open Windows Explorer or other applications.

If you create a redirected folder, such as C:\NewPicturesFolder, and then set the new folder as the Pictures target folder by using Windows Explorer, when you start Windows Live Photo Gallery it does not recognize or open the new folder.

Consider the following scenario:

• In a Windows Server 2003 domain, you configure a Folder Redirection Group Policy object.
• You have more than 256 security groups configured in the Folder Redirection Group Policy object.

However, when a user logs on to the domain from a Windows Vista-based client computer, the folders are not redirected to the location that is configured in the Group Policy object.

Note: This issue does not occur on a Windows XP-based client computer.

In an Active Directory directory service domain environment, you configure the Folder Redirection policy setting for Windows Vista-based client computers. In this situation, every time that this policy setting is applied, all the contents are pinned and are filled in the redirected folder. However, you expect only the updated contents to be pinned and to be filled when the Folder Redirection policy setting is applied.

This behavior results in lots of unnecessary disk writing operations. For example, the search index has to be updated both for the updated contents and for the original contents in the redirected folder. Also, this problem makes the network performance slow when the Folder Redirection policy setting is applied.

Note: The Folder Redirection policy setting will be applied if one the following conditions is true:

• The Folder Redirection policy setting is changed.
• You enable the Folder Redirection policy processing policy setting together with the Process even if the Group Policy objects have not changed option.

Consider the following scenario. On a Microsoft Windows Vista-based computer, you redirect folder A to the same location as non-redirectable folder B. In this scenario, you experience the following problems:

• Folder A can no longer perform Group Policy redirection.
• Folder A no longer lets you perform manual redirection.

Additionally, consider the following scenario. On a Windows Vista-based computer, you redirect folder A to the same location as a different redirectable folder B. You move all the contents of folder A to the new location. In this scenario, you experience the following problems:

• Folder A merges with folder B, and you cannot separate the folders.
• Folder A is listed two times in the user profiles folder in Windows Explorer.

For example, you redirect the Music folder to the location of the Pictures folder, and then you move all the contents of the Music folder to the new location. In this scenario, the Music folder merges with the Pictures folder, and you cannot separate the folders. Then, the Music folder is listed two times in the user profiles folder in Windows Explorer.