Determine User's Windows Profile Type

[chris128]

Here is a quick bit of code I wrote that shows how to use the GetProfileType API to determine if the user is using a local, roaming, temporary, or mandatory windows profile. Just posting it here as there seems to be no examples of using this API from VB.NET on google (or pinvoke.net)

Here are the API definitions I am using:

Const PT_LOCAL As UInteger = 0
Const PT_TEMPORARY As UInteger = 1
Const PT_ROAMING As UInteger = 2
Const PT_MANDATORY As UInteger = 4
 
''' <summary>
''' Determines the type of Windows profile being used by the user
''' </summary>
''' <param name="pdwflags">Output parameter</param>
<System.Runtime.InteropServices.DllImportAttribute("Userenv.dll", EntryPoint:="GetProfileType")> _
Public Shared Function GetProfileType(ByRef pdwflags As UInteger) As Boolean
End Function

and here is an example of how to use it in a method:

Dim ProfileType As UInteger
GetProfileType(ProfileType)
 
Select Case ProfileType
    Case PT_LOCAL
                MessageBox.Show("Using a local profile")
    Case PT_TEMPORARY
                MessageBox.Show("Using a temporary profile")
    Case PT_ROAMING
                MessageBox.Show("Using a roaming profile")
    Case PT_MANDATORY
                MessageBox.Show("Using a mandatory profile")
End Select

Tested on Windows XP 32 bit and Windows 7 64 bit

[pan123sel]

Hi Chris -

Is it possible to use this code to check the remote machine users profile type ?

Any suggestins?

[chris128]

I dont think there is any way you can use this API to do that no, but I believe this API works by reading the value of the "State" value in the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\SID
Replace that last part of the path ("SID") with the SID of the user that you want to get the profile type of.

[pan123sel]

Thank you.