Question about user profiles

Question

Question about user profiles

Andre Bunting 20

i recently moved my user profiles to drive D:\profiles$\ .. that seems to be working.

I believe i have setup replication properly as well as roaming profiles.

My question here is, how can i see how much space a user profile is taking up on the drive ?

When i right click on the username and go to properties in the folder for example "Ameilia.V6".. dont know where the .v6 came from.. i see it has a file size of zero.. .. it doesnt show me if it has any file folder structure.. stating i dont have permissions to access this folder.

Secondly how would my backup software that runs as an admin user be able to backup the user profiles, if as an admin i cant read/access user profiles??

This is windows server 2025

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2 answers

Your answer

Answer 1

The .V6 suffix on the profile folder name is expected. It is the roaming profile version used by newer Windows 10 builds and corresponding Windows Server versions. Each OS family uses its own profile version (for example, .V2, .V3, .V4, .V5, .V6) so that profiles are kept separate and compatible.

For example:

Windows 10 uses \\<servername>\\<fileshare>\\<username>.V5
Windows 10, version 1703 and version 1607 use \\<servername>\\<fileshare>\\<username>.V6

So a folder like Amelia.V6 is a normal roaming profile folder for that profile version.

Regarding size and access:

Roaming profiles are stored on a file share, and NTFS permissions are typically set so that only the specific user and SYSTEM have access. This is why an administrator may see “0 bytes” or get an access denied message when checking the folder properties directly.
The context provided does not include specific steps or tools for an administrator to enumerate profile sizes or adjust permissions for backup purposes.
The context also does not describe how backup software should be configured to access these protected profile folders.

Because of that, no further supported guidance on viewing profile sizes or configuring backup access can be given from the available information.

References:

Deploy roaming user profiles

Answer 2

VPHAN 43,315 Independent Advisor

Hi Andre Bunting,

The .V6 extension on your roaming profile folders is the standard naming convention used by modern operating systems like Windows 10, Windows 11, and Windows Server 2025 to differentiate profile versions. The zero-byte size and access denial you are experiencing occur because Windows automatically applies strict NTFS permissions to newly generated roaming profiles, granting Full Control exclusively to the target user and the Local System account. Since your administrator account is not on the Access Control List, Windows Explorer is blocked from reading the directory contents to calculate the actual storage size. You can verify which profiles are actively registered to the system by checking the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList registry key.

To allow administrator access for future profiles, you must enable the Group Policy located at Computer Configuration, Administrative Templates, System, and User Profiles by turning on the setting to add the Administrators security group to roaming user profiles. For your existing folders like Ameilia.V6, you must carefully modify the permissions without permanently stripping the user of folder ownership. Taking ownership away from the user without properly restoring it can cause the User Profile Service to generate an Event ID 1521 access denied error during their next logon attempt. A safer approach to viewing the size and structure of existing folders is to execute a command line utility like dir or icacls.exe using a tool that runs under the Local System context, as that account inherently holds the required access rights.

Your enterprise backup software successfully processes these restricted directories because it does not rely on standard user-level NTFS permissions. Backup agents typically run directly as the Local System account or leverage the Windows Volume Shadow Copy Service combined with the SeBackupPrivilege user right. This architecture grants the software the ability to read the raw file data at the volume level, bypassing the standard Windows Explorer access checks entirely and ensuring user profiles are safely archived even when administrators cannot manually browse them.

Hope this answer brought you some useful information. If it did, please hit "accept answer". Should you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment.

VP

Andre Bunting 20 Reputation points

2026-03-10T04:15:14.6533333+00:00

i will looking into this.. because i would clearly want to be able to ensure that the folders are replicating properly and have the right data size. i would have to double check on our backup software using volume shadow copy.
Andre Bunting 20 Reputation points

2026-03-11T05:04:10.65+00:00

Any suggestions on how best to edit the permissions of the Ameilia.V6 folder ?
VPHAN 43,315 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-03-11T05:50:09.6366667+00:00

Andre Bunting

The safest and most professional method to edit the permissions of the Ameilia.V6 folder is to avoid the Windows Explorer security tab entirely. Manually stripping folder ownership from the user through the graphical interface frequently corrupts the roaming profile trust. Instead, you should leverage the NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM account, which already possesses native Full Control over these protected profile directories. By executing your permission changes as the local system, you can append your administrative access to the folder without ever altering the user's underlying ownership attribute.

You can do this securely by downloading the official PsExec utility from the Microsoft Sysinternals suite. Open an elevated administrative command prompt and execute the command psexec.exe -s -i cmd.exe. This action will launch a brand new command prompt window that runs directly under the Local System context. Because this specific session operates with the absolute highest local privileges and inherently has full access to the roaming profile directory, you can safely modify the security descriptors without encountering access denied errors.

In that newly spawned Local System command prompt, you will use the built-in icacls tool to push the required access rights downward. Execute the command icacls "D:\profiles$\Ameilia.V6" /grant Administrators:(OI)(CI)F /T to apply the changes. This exact syntax grants the local Administrators group Full Control while ensuring those permissions inherit perfectly to all subfolders and files inside the user's directory. Once the command processes successfully, you can return to Windows Explorer to accurately calculate the storage size and browse the folder structure without having jeopardized the user's ability to log on.

VP
Andre Bunting 20 Reputation points

2026-03-11T16:31:28.11+00:00

thanks this worked...