Windows User Profile:

The system creates a user profile the first time that a user logs on to a computer. At subsequent logons, the system loads the user's profile, and then other system components configure the user's environment according to the information in the profile.

Types of User Profiles:

Local User Profile: This profile is automatically created the first time a user logs on to the computer, and it is stored on the computer's local hard drive. Any changes made to the local user profile are specific to the computer where the change was made.

Roaming User Profile: Roaming user profile created by an administrator and store it on a network server. This profile is available when a user logs on to any computer on the network. Any changes made to roaming user profiles are automatically updated on the server when the user logs off.

Temporary User Profiles:-  Temporary profile is issued each time that an error condition prevents the user's profile from loading. Temporary profiles are deleted at the end of each session, and changes made by the user to desktop settings and files are lost when the user logs off. Temporary profiles are only available on computers running Windows 2000 and later.

Mandatory User Profile: A mandatory user profile is a special type of pre-configured roaming user profile that administrators can use to specify settings for users. With mandatory user profiles, a user can modify his or her desktop, but the changes are not saved when the user logs off. The next time the user logs on, the mandatory user profile created by the administrator is downloaded.

There are two types of mandatory profiles: normal mandatory profiles and super-mandatory profiles.

User profiles become mandatory profiles when the administrator renames the NTuser.dat file (the registry hive) on the server to NTuser.man. The .man extension causes the user profile to be a read-only profile.

User profiles become super-mandatory when the folder name of the profile path ends in .man; for example, \\server\share\mandatoryprofile.man\.

Super-mandatory user profiles are similar to normal mandatory profiles, with the exception that users who have super-mandatory profiles cannot log on when the server that stores the mandatory profile is unavailable. Users with normal mandatory profiles can log on with the locally cached copy of the mandatory profile.

Only system administrators can make changes to mandatory user profiles.