Profiles and Briefcase May Not Work with Windows NT Server

ID: Q160808

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows 98
Microsoft Windows 95
Microsoft Windows 95 OEM Service Release version 2
Microsoft Windows 95 OEM Service Release version 2.1

SYMPTOMS

When you are using Briefcase or user profiles with files stored on a Windows NT server, you may experience one of the following problems:

If user profiles are enabled, the profiles are stored on a Windows NT server (to provide roving profiles), and the server has a very large number of shares, the user profile may not be downloaded from the server when a user logs on. The default user profile is used instead.

If Briefcase is used to synchronize with files stored on a Windows NT server, and the server has a very large number of shares, the synchronization operation may not work.

When user profiles are enabled and you try to copy a file from a Windows NT or NetWare server to the Briefcase, the copy operation is not successful. When this occurs, you may not receive an error message. Although you can copy files from the server to the local hard disk, you cannot copy to the Briefcase.

CAUSE

User profiles and Briefcase use the same API set to synchronize data on a local drive with data on the server. The network calls made result in a list of shares on the server being returned to the client. However, if there are too many shares on the server, the data buffer is not large enough to contain the full list of shares. If the share on which the data is located is not included in the partial list returned, the operation does not work.

RESOLUTION

A supported fix for Windows 95 and Windows 95 OEM Service Release 2 and 2.1 that corrects this problem is now available from Microsoft, but has not been fully regression tested and should be applied only to computers experiencing this specific problem. To resolve this problem immediately, contact Microsoft Technical Support to obtain the fix.

For a complete list of Microsoft Technical Support phone numbers and information on support costs, please go to the following address on the World Wide Web:

http://support.microsoft.com/support/supportnet/default.asp

This fix for Windows 95 and OEM Service Release 2.x should have the following file attributes (or later):


   File name     Version    Date      Time     Size
   ---------------------------------------------------------
   Linkinfo.dll  4.00.951   2/1/96    9:51am   13,824 bytes

NOTE: If you contact Microsoft to obtain this fix, a fee may be charged. This fee is refundable if it is determined that you only require the fix you requested. However, this fee is non-refundable if you request additional technical support, if your no-charge technical support period has expired, or if you are not eligible for standard no-charge technical support.

For more information about eligibility for no-charge technical support, see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q154871 Determining If Your Product Is Eligible for No-Charge Technical Support

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Microsoft Windows 95, Microsoft Windows 95 OEM Service Release 2 (OSR2), and Microsoft Windows 98.

MORE INFORMATION

If this problem occurs with user profiles, the user profile cannot be downloaded from the Windows NT server, but an updated user profile can be saved to the Windows NT server when the user logs off. If this occurs, the user's profile on the Windows NT server is overwritten by the changed copy of the default profile. The previous user profile must then be restored to the Windows NT server from a recent backup.

For additional information about related issues, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q160807 Cannot Connect to Windows NT Server with Many Shares

For additional information about Windows 95 updates, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q161020 Implementing Windows 95 Updates


Keywords          : kbnetwork osr2 win95 
Version           : WINDOWS:95
Platform          : WINDOWS 
Issue type        : kbprb

Last Reviewed: June 2, 1999