Edited default login profile is not used upon re-login to eDirectory

The Novell Client for Windows 7 has two different categories of Login Profiles: System, and per-user. "System" login profiles are those found stored under [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Novell\Login\Profiles\System], and can be edited from the "System Login Profiles" tab of the Novell Client Properties. "Per-user" login profiles are those found stored under [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Novell\Login\Profiles\Users\<username>], and are edited from the "Login Profile Administration" menu under "User Administration" in the red 'N' menu of the Novell Client taskbar notification area icon.

From an end-user perspective, the user simply sees individual login profile names, such as "Default", and doesn't need to know whether it happens to be a "System" versus "per-user" login profile.  All they need to know is "I'm logging in with the login profile named 'Default'".

Take, for example, the case of a newly-installed Novell Client machine, where no user has ever logged in yet after installing the Novell Client.  The default login profile name in the Novell Client is "Default", and is the login profile which will be used during the user logins on this machine.

When the Novell Client login UI is presented, and I provide my user name "AUser" (but have not yet provided the password or attempted to actually login), the first thing the Novell Client does is check for a per-user login profile named "Default" for the user "AUser".  In other words, it checks if [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Novell\Login\Profiles\Users\AUser\Default] exists. Because this is a machine where I've never logged in before, a per-user version of the "Default" login profile does not exist for "AUser".

After determining that a per-user version of the login profile does not exist, the next thing the Novell Client does is check for a system login profile named "Default"; i.e. [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Novell\Login\Profiles\System\Default].

On a newly installed machine, this system login profile "Default" will exist but will be empty.  So although the system login profile "Default" will be successfully found, the user will still effectively have a blank login profile and will need to use "Show Advanced Options" to provide their eDirectory tree name, context, etc., in order to make a successful eDirectory login attempt.

Once the user successfully logs into eDirectory, there is a setting in the Novell Client login profile named "Save profile after successful login" which is enabled by default.  This is what will cause the eDirectory tree, context, etc., specified by the user to be saved for future login attempts.

When the Novell Client saves this login profile information, it's expected to save the information to the per-user copy of the "Default" login profile. Not back to the "System" version of the login profile named "Default".  So next time someone comes up to this machine and specifies the user "AUser", there will be a per-user version of the "Default" login profile found which already have the correct eDirectory tree name, context, etc., that "AUser" used during their previous successful login.

Editing the System login profile is something an administrator might do in order to establish a set of defaults that all first-time users should get when they've never logged onto this machine before.  But once those users successfully logon, at least by default (because the "Save profile after successful login" is enabled by default) those users should now get their own "private" per-user copies of the login profile named "Default", where the user's specific "Context:" value, etc., is saved.

Editing the System login profile would therefore intentionally have no effect on the user's next login attempt, because the user already has their own per-user copy of the Default login profile. Editing the System login profile has changed what default the next new user will get, but to change the user's existing per-user copy of the Default login profile, you will need to use the "Login Profile Administration" menu under "User Administration" in the red 'N' menu of the Novell Client taskbar notification area icon while logged on as that user.