Roaming Profiles

Roaming profiles save your Windows preferences giving you a consistent look and feel as you move from cluster computer to cluster computer.

Your Windows roaming profile information will be stored on a central server with a maximum quota of 20MB.  You can check your quota by visiting the Computing tab of the Carnegie Mellon Web Portal.

The first time you logon to a cluster Windows computer, your roaming profile will be created. This profile is saved when you logoff and will be available the next time you log on to any Windows cluster computer.

Roaming profiles offers consistent access to the following:

• Browser Favorites - Favorites that you have set up in Internet Explorer on one cluster computer will be available on other cluster computers.
• Recently Used Applications - Click Start on Windows cluster computer and your most recently used programs will appear.

Over Quota Messages

You will receive an e-mail message as you approach your 20MB roaming profile quota. Some applications install directly into your profile space and may cause you to reach your quota quickly. Two situations that can cause this problem are:

• Gaim and GTK or other application installs
• Java cache from web-based java viewing

In order to temporarily fix the problem of being over quota, we recommend clearing your cookies from your browser preferences.  Once this is done, you should be able to access your account and use the following steps for Gaim and Java cache to clear more space in your quota. 

Clearing Cookies

These instructions will vary slightly according to what browser you are using.  To clear cookies:

1. Select Preferences from your browser menu
2. Click on the tab for Privacy
3. Select Show Cookies
4. Select Remove All
   

Gaim and GTK or other application installs

Gaim and GTK install directly into your profile space and use over 20MB of space. This immediately takes you over your roaming profile quota limit.

If you haven't installed Gaim or GTK, but are generating the error, check the following directory to determine if other applications are installed in your profile space:

C:\Documents and Settings\YOURUSERID\

To eliminate this problem, uninstall the program and reinstall it in a different location such as your MyFiles space. MyFiles offers 1GB of space and is still available to you from any cluster computer.

In the example of the Gaim and GTK applications, follow these steps to remove the program and reinstall:

1. From a public Windows cluster computer, select Start > Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs
2. Select the appropriate program (e.g., Gaim or GTK) and select Remove.
3. Re-run the application's installation program using the following as the destination to install to:
   • For Gaim use w:\Application Data\Gaim
   • For GTK use w:\Application Data\GTK
4. Your roaming profile size will decrease once you logout.

Java cache from web-based java viewing

As you browse the web, you may view web pages that use java to display certain graphical elements. To improve performance, your browser stores these files to your Roaming Profiles space. Follow these steps to remove them:

1. From a Windows cluster computer, select Start > My Computer.
2. Double-click Local Disk (C:), then double-click Documents and Settings, then double-click YOURUSERID.
3. In YOURUSERID folder, look for a sub-folder called .jpi_cache; and double-click on it to open it.
4. In the .jpi_cache folder, look for a sub-folder called jar; double-click on it to open it.
5. In the jar folder, look for a folder called 1.0. Right-click on the 1.0 folder, then select Delete from the drop-down menu to remove the folder and the files.