Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 - Manual (Page 12)

4 Microsoft Windows NT Server White Paper
from any computer. A user who has a roaming profile can log on to
any computer for which that profile is valid and access the profile.
(Note that a profile is only valid on the platform for which it was cre-
ated— for example, a Windows NT 4.0 profile cannot be used on a
Windows 95 computer.)
Roaming User
A roaming user is a user who logs on to the network from different
computers at different times. This type of user may use a kiosk or may
share a bank of computers with other users. A roaming user stores his
or her user profile on a network share, and can log on to any net-
worked computer and access that profile.
System Policy
A System Policy is a set of registry settings that together define the
computer resources available to a group of users or an individual. You
create system policies with the System Policy Editor. System policies
allow an administrator to control user work environments and actions,
and to enforce system configurations.
%systemroot%
An environment variable that expands to become the root directory
containing Windows NT files. The directory name is specified when
Windows NT is installed (normally, this directory name is c:\winnt).
%systemroot%\profiles
A folder in the root directory that contains the user profiles for each
user of the computer.
%username%
An environment variable that expands to become the user account ID
for the current logged on user. This identifies the user account to
Windows NT.
Technical Notes
Several portions of this guide refer to registry locations that allow you to
change certain behaviors of Windows NT and modify settings. For this reason,
we include the following warning.
Caution:
Using Registry Editor incorrectly can cause system-wide problems that may require you to reinstall
Windows NT to correct them. Microsoft cannot guarantee that any problems resulting from the use of
Registry Editor can be resolved.
In addition, portions of this guide refer to a registry hive called NTuser.xxx. In
instances where this is used, .xxx can be replaced with either .dat or .man.