
I was recently on a project where we used FSLogix for profile management in Citrix. During the design phase with the customer, it was discovered that the client only wanted to redirect specific “Common” directories. Those common directories that they wanted to redirect were: Desktop, Favorites, and Documents. Unfortunately, the documentation for FSLogix and excluding directories isn’t the most straight forward – this included support who struggled to figure it out.
For those not familiar with how FSLogix works, let me take a moment to explain. FSLogix Containers (Profile and Office365) creates a Virtual Hard Drive (VHD) file on a FileServer and stores the user profile including registry in the VHD file. For Profiles, this results in very fast login times as there is no data being copied to the non-persistent VDI session. It simply mounts the VHD to the OS and accesses the data as it was local.
With FSLogix, there is a “Redirections.XML” file, which controls what folders you want to include/exclude. This file needs to be shared and accessible to “everyone” in a read-only capacity. This allows the file to be read upon login and copied to the user’s profile. The FSLogix ADMX file, tells the FSLogix Service where to look for the file. [Computer Configuration /Administrative Templates /FSLogix /Profile Containers /Advanced / Provide RedirXML file to customize redirections]
In the above example, we implemented a Redirections.XML file with the contents listed below:

Where the “0” is listed, you have some options:
0 = No files copied in or out. (Note: the copy tag may be left out entirely and the action will be the same as setting to 0. Only the folder(s) are created on the local_<user_name> directory.)
1 = Copy files to base. Any existing file in an excluded folder will be copied to base.
2 = Copy files back to the virtual profile. Any modified file in the base will be copied back to profile on user logout.
3 = Files are copied from/to base. Combinations options 1 and 2.
FSLogix Profiles made the painful VDI Profile portion, much less painful, and was relatively easy to implement.
I’m excited to see how Microsoft will continue to enhance the different containers and what’s next!