When you add a user to the Guests group, then login as that user, then open "Configure advanced user profile properties", the status for that user is "Temporary" instead of "Local".
How can set a user to have a temporary profile without adding them to the guests group?
Edit: This behavior is the same from Windows 2000 through Windows 10, but I'm mostly interested in 7 SP1 and 10 1607. I know about mandatory profiles and Shared PC Mode but I'm looking for a solution that doesn't use these.
Best Answer
Set the profile for a user to a read-only folder to force a temporary profile.
Step 1: Create Dummy Folder (once)
Note: This folder is not accessible by default as it requires administrative approval to modify, even for Administrators. You can more explicitly force read-only by removing the Administrators permission from the folder.
Step 2: Assign Dummy Folder To Users
USERNAME
:net user USERNAME /PROFILEPATH:C:\Users\dummy /HOMEDIR:C:\Users\dummy
Step 3: Rename Existing User Folder (Optional, Windows 10 only)
If Windows 10 cannot access the specified user folder (from Step 2), it will attempt to load an existing profile. To prevent this, rename an existing profile from
USERNAME
toUSERNAME.old
.Notes:
Windows 10 Note:
Windows 10 will display the following warning dialog upon logging on with an inaccessible (read-only) profile. Simply click Dismiss to continue.