GPO with Folder Redirection not working

[meineomma]

Hello everyone

I am having trouble with a new batch of ntlite deployments. Last year's images all performed well. This year's however have left me baffled:
There's a (among others) a user gpo in place that includes folder redirections. However they are not applied and there is no error message or logged event
gpresult -r shows the user gpo is applied
gpresult -h however shows no redirected folders

on every last-year's machine it works. on none of the current-year's it does. So the issue must be machine-based and thus image-based.

For example:
Creating a new user and logging into a new system creates %appdata% in C:\Users\%username%\Appdata\Roaming
Logging onto a last-year's computer puts it into %homeshare%\appdata as is dictated by the gpo
Then logging on into a new machine however keeps the folder redirection, even if the part of the gpo isn't used.

On last year's machines I have three gpo events in eventlog, this year's only have two, guess which one is missing. Also last year's machines gpupdate always prompt for logoff because of redirected folders, while this year's don't (clearly because they are ignoring it, but why?)

Is there a setting I may have mistakenly set, which may prevent the machine to consider that part of the gpo?

 

[garlin]

For "last year's images", are you using a different Windows version (22H2 vs 23H2), or later updates to the same version?
How is the GPO applied? By a local policy file, or pushed from an AD domain?

 

[meineomma]

For "last year's images", are you using a different Windows version (22H2 vs 23H2), or later updates to the same version?
How is the GPO applied? By a local policy file, or pushed from an AD domain?

Both are using Win10 22H2
AD Domain

 

[meineomma]

garlin
nvm. I was careless and acted stupidly, just used the ntlite privacy template on components without checking which components get removed. spoiler alert: privacy template removes folder redirection permanently.
Yeah, that means I will have to go through the whole process of creating an image, sysprep audit, software install (30+ different apps and programs) all over again.
Time for me to take that walk of shame.
probably won't happen to me again.

 

[garlin]

For an offline image, you can't restore a removed component. You need to start over from a clean ISO, load your last preset, and correct the pending changes.

If you're using a licensed copy of NTLite, it's possible to use Host refresh on a live system to perform a "repair install" from a clean ISO and restore the missing component. But since you identified the original problem, it's probably easier just to make another ISO and test it.