file sharing in the 21st century

[black3dynamite]

We mainly use NC as a replacement for folder redirection w/ offline at work and its been working great. Each users root folders like Desktop and Documents are moved into the Nextcloud directory and then use symbolic link (junction points) to point to each folder in the Nextcloud directory.

[JaredBusch]

@black3dynamite said in file sharing in the 21st century:

We mainly use NC as a replacement for folder redirection w/ offline at work and its been working great. Each users root folders like Desktop and Documents are moved into the Nextcloud directory and then use symbolic link (junction points) to point to each folder in the Nextcloud directory.

This is what I do. Except , I just used windows settings to change the location of C:\Users\Username\Documents

Totally spaced on using links... Damnit.

[dbeato]

@Dashrender said in file sharing in the 21st century:

@scottalanmiller said in file sharing in the 21st century:

@Donahue said in file sharing in the 21st century:

@Dashrender said in file sharing in the 21st century:

@Donahue said in file sharing in the 21st century:

I dont really want to dive any deeping into MS's pockets if I can avoid it.

What are you using for email? If using O365 you likely already have OneDrive for business

we currently have hosted exchange, not o365, but I want to switch. We pay way too much. I am not sure what I want to switch to.

Zimbra, woot!

HIPAA compliant?

I mean, that is another debate for another post but certainly can be depending what you determine what is HIPAA Compliance for your business.

[scottalanmiller]

@Dashrender said in file sharing in the 21st century:

@scottalanmiller said in file sharing in the 21st century:

@Donahue said in file sharing in the 21st century:

@Dashrender said in file sharing in the 21st century:

@Donahue said in file sharing in the 21st century:

I dont really want to dive any deeping into MS's pockets if I can avoid it.

What are you using for email? If using O365 you likely already have OneDrive for business

we currently have hosted exchange, not o365, but I want to switch. We pay way too much. I am not sure what I want to switch to.

Zimbra, woot!

HIPAA compliant?

I assume this is tongue in cheek, as of course, it is HIPAA compliant.

[scottalanmiller]

@dbeato said in file sharing in the 21st century:

@Dashrender said in file sharing in the 21st century:

@scottalanmiller said in file sharing in the 21st century:

@Donahue said in file sharing in the 21st century:

@Dashrender said in file sharing in the 21st century:

@Donahue said in file sharing in the 21st century:

I dont really want to dive any deeping into MS's pockets if I can avoid it.

What are you using for email? If using O365 you likely already have OneDrive for business

we currently have hosted exchange, not o365, but I want to switch. We pay way too much. I am not sure what I want to switch to.

Zimbra, woot!

HIPAA compliant?

I mean, that is another debate for another post but certainly can be depending what you determine what is HIPAA Compliance for your business.

Right, as software doesn't have or not have HIPAA compliance, there is no concept of such in HIPAA.

[Emad R]

The big difference is share the files take 10 GB in that share with NC it takes 10 GB on your machine and the share, that said it is nice to have an extra copy. However, some mentioned that there is a workaround but it is not what NC meant to do by default (spoken like true NC engineer that I am not ).

[Emad R]

@black3dynamite said in file sharing in the 21st century:

We mainly use NC as a replacement for folder redirection w/ offline at work and its been working great. Each users root folders like Desktop and Documents are moved into the Nextcloud directory and then use symbolic link (junction points) to point to each folder in the Nextcloud directory.

Noice, so you make Junction point on (C:)\Users\Username or only on Desktop and Documents and stuff like that.

What if that fucker starting to save files on the (D:) and gave you a D or you dont make any other partition

[black3dynamite]

@Emad-R said in file sharing in the 21st century:

@black3dynamite said in file sharing in the 21st century:

We mainly use NC as a replacement for folder redirection w/ offline at work and its been working great. Each users root folders like Desktop and Documents are moved into the Nextcloud directory and then use symbolic link (junction points) to point to each folder in the Nextcloud directory.

Noice, so you make Junction point on (C:)\Users\Username or only on Desktop and Documents and stuff like that.

What if that fucker starting to save files on the (D:) and gave you a D or you dont make any other partition

I make junction points for the root directories under C:\Users\john.doe\ except for AppData directory and then create a Local Files Only or Personal Files in john.doe directory so they can keep their crap there. No other partitions.

[Dashrender]

@JaredBusch said in file sharing in the 21st century:

@black3dynamite said in file sharing in the 21st century:

We mainly use NC as a replacement for folder redirection w/ offline at work and its been working great. Each users root folders like Desktop and Documents are moved into the Nextcloud directory and then use symbolic link (junction points) to point to each folder in the Nextcloud directory.

This is what I do. Except , I just used windows settings to change the location of C:\Users\Username\Documents

Totally spaced on using links... Damnit.

So you could have gotten hit by the 1809 folder redirection data loss problem.

[Dashrender]

@Emad-R said in file sharing in the 21st century:

@black3dynamite said in file sharing in the 21st century:

We mainly use NC as a replacement for folder redirection w/ offline at work and its been working great. Each users root folders like Desktop and Documents are moved into the Nextcloud directory and then use symbolic link (junction points) to point to each folder in the Nextcloud directory.

Noice, so you make Junction point on (C:)\Users\Username or only on Desktop and Documents and stuff like that.

What if that fucker starting to save files on the (D:) and gave you a D or you dont make any other partition

If a user is working outside where you want them to have data, ultimately there is nothing you can do other than fire them. Users who want to find a way around your stuff, likely will. The question would be —-why are they?

[JaredBusch]

@Dashrender said in file sharing in the 21st century:

@Emad-R said in file sharing in the 21st century:

@black3dynamite said in file sharing in the 21st century:

We mainly use NC as a replacement for folder redirection w/ offline at work and its been working great. Each users root folders like Desktop and Documents are moved into the Nextcloud directory and then use symbolic link (junction points) to point to each folder in the Nextcloud directory.

Noice, so you make Junction point on (C:)\Users\Username or only on Desktop and Documents and stuff like that.

What if that fucker starting to save files on the (D:) and gave you a D or you dont make any other partition

If a user is working outside where you want them to have data, ultimately there is nothing you can do other than fire them. Users who want to find a way around your stuff, likely will. The question would be —-why are they?

Anything not saved where it is supposed to be means I don’t give a fuck if you lose it.

[JaredBusch]

@Dashrender said in file sharing in the 21st century:

@JaredBusch said in file sharing in the 21st century:

@black3dynamite said in file sharing in the 21st century:

We mainly use NC as a replacement for folder redirection w/ offline at work and its been working great. Each users root folders like Desktop and Documents are moved into the Nextcloud directory and then use symbolic link (junction points) to point to each folder in the Nextcloud directory.

This is what I do. Except , I just used windows settings to change the location of C:\Users\Username\Documents

Totally spaced on using links... Damnit.

So you could have gotten hit by the 1809 folder redirection data loss problem.

Well the default NC location is C:\Users\username\Nextcloud.

So would that have potentially been affected anyway? It didn’t hit my test upgrades I did before it was pulled.

[Dashrender]

@JaredBusch said in file sharing in the 21st century:

@Dashrender said in file sharing in the 21st century:

@JaredBusch said in file sharing in the 21st century:

@black3dynamite said in file sharing in the 21st century:

We mainly use NC as a replacement for folder redirection w/ offline at work and its been working great. Each users root folders like Desktop and Documents are moved into the Nextcloud directory and then use symbolic link (junction points) to point to each folder in the Nextcloud directory.

This is what I do. Except , I just used windows settings to change the location of C:\Users\Username\Documents

Totally spaced on using links... Damnit.

So you could have gotten hit by the 1809 folder redirection data loss problem.

Well the default NC location is C:\Users\username\Nextcloud.

So would that have potentially been affected anyway? It didn’t hit my test upgrades I did before it was pulled.

No, I wouldn't expect the Nextcloud folder to be affected, it's not one of MS's folders. The main ones affected were /desktop and /documents. If either of these were redirected to another location (assuming c:\users\username\Nextcloud\desktop, c:\users\username\Nextcloud\documents), and there were files left behind in the old(original) location, then you could have been bit.

[JaredBusch]

@black3dynamite said in file sharing in the 21st century:

@Emad-R said in file sharing in the 21st century:

@black3dynamite said in file sharing in the 21st century:

We mainly use NC as a replacement for folder redirection w/ offline at work and its been working great. Each users root folders like Desktop and Documents are moved into the Nextcloud directory and then use symbolic link (junction points) to point to each folder in the Nextcloud directory.

Noice, so you make Junction point on (C:)\Users\Username or only on Desktop and Documents and stuff like that.

What if that fucker starting to save files on the (D:) and gave you a D or you dont make any other partition

I make junction points for the root directories under C:\Users\john.doe\ except for AppData directory and then create a Local Files Only or Personal Files in john.doe directory so they can keep their crap there. No other partitions.

Assuming the folder structure exists within the Nextcloud folder, this is what I just came up with today.
Obviously, the data in these directories needs to already have been moved to the appropriate Nextcloud folders.
LinkNextcloud.ps1 has to be executed in an elevated PS sessions so i have it prompt for the username.

# Save file as LinkNextcloud.ps1
$User = Read-Host "Enter UserName"
Remove-Item -Path "C:\Users\$User\Desktop" -Force -Confirm
New-Item -ItemType Junction -Path "C:\Users\$User" -Name "Desktop" -Target "C:\Users\$User\Nextcloud\Desktop" -Force
Remove-Item -Path "C:\Users\$User\Documents" -Force -Confirm
New-Item -ItemType Junction -Path "C:\Users\$User" -Name "Documents" -Target "C:\Users\$User\Nextcloud\Documents" -Force
Remove-Item -Path "C:\Users\$User\Downloads" -Force -Confirm
New-Item -ItemType Junction -Path "C:\Users\$User" -Name "Downloads" -Target "C:\Users\$User\Nextcloud\Downloads" -Force
Remove-Item -Path "C:\Users\$User\Favorites" -Force -Confirm
New-Item -ItemType Junction -Path "C:\Users\$User" -Name "Favorites" -Target "C:\Users\$User\Nextcloud\Favorites" -Force
Remove-Item -Path "C:\Users\$User\Music" -Force -Confirm
New-Item -ItemType Junction -Path "C:\Users\$User" -Name "Music" -Target "C:\Users\$User\Nextcloud\Music" -Force
Remove-Item -Path "C:\Users\$User\Pictures" -Force -Confirm
New-Item -ItemType Junction -Path "C:\Users\$User" -Name "Pictures" -Target "C:\Users\$User\Nextcloud\Pictures" -Force
Remove-Item -Path "C:\Users\$User\Videos" -Force -Confirm
New-Item -ItemType Junction -Path "C:\Users\$User" -Name "Videos" -Target "C:\Users\$User\Nextcloud\Videos" -Force

Definitely room for improvement.. Just pulled this out of my ass today to resolve an issue.

[black3dynamite]

@JaredBusch said in file sharing in the 21st century:

@black3dynamite said in file sharing in the 21st century:

@Emad-R said in file sharing in the 21st century:

@black3dynamite said in file sharing in the 21st century:

We mainly use NC as a replacement for folder redirection w/ offline at work and its been working great. Each users root folders like Desktop and Documents are moved into the Nextcloud directory and then use symbolic link (junction points) to point to each folder in the Nextcloud directory.

Noice, so you make Junction point on (C:)\Users\Username or only on Desktop and Documents and stuff like that.

What if that fucker starting to save files on the (D:) and gave you a D or you dont make any other partition

I make junction points for the root directories under C:\Users\john.doe\ except for AppData directory and then create a Local Files Only or Personal Files in john.doe directory so they can keep their crap there. No other partitions.

Assuming the folder structure exists within the Nextcloud folder, this is what I just came up with today.
Obviously, the data in these directories needs to already have been moved to the appropriate Nextcloud folders.
LinkNextcloud.ps1 has to be executed in an elevated PS sessions so i have it prompt for the username.

# Save file as LinkNextcloud.ps1
$User = Read-Host "Enter UserName"
Remove-Item -Path "C:\Users\$User\Desktop" -Force -Confirm
New-Item -ItemType Junction -Path "C:\Users\$User" -Name "Desktop" -Target "C:\Users\$User\Nextcloud\Desktop" -Force
Remove-Item -Path "C:\Users\$User\Documents" -Force -Confirm
New-Item -ItemType Junction -Path "C:\Users\$User" -Name "Documents" -Target "C:\Users\$User\Nextcloud\Documents" -Force
Remove-Item -Path "C:\Users\$User\Downloads" -Force -Confirm
New-Item -ItemType Junction -Path "C:\Users\$User" -Name "Downloads" -Target "C:\Users\$User\Nextcloud\Downloads" -Force
Remove-Item -Path "C:\Users\$User\Favorites" -Force -Confirm
New-Item -ItemType Junction -Path "C:\Users\$User" -Name "Favorites" -Target "C:\Users\$User\Nextcloud\Favorites" -Force
Remove-Item -Path "C:\Users\$User\Music" -Force -Confirm
New-Item -ItemType Junction -Path "C:\Users\$User" -Name "Music" -Target "C:\Users\$User\Nextcloud\Music" -Force
Remove-Item -Path "C:\Users\$User\Pictures" -Force -Confirm
New-Item -ItemType Junction -Path "C:\Users\$User" -Name "Pictures" -Target "C:\Users\$User\Nextcloud\Pictures" -Force
Remove-Item -Path "C:\Users\$User\Videos" -Force -Confirm
New-Item -ItemType Junction -Path "C:\Users\$User" -Name "Videos" -Target "C:\Users\$User\Nextcloud\Videos" -Force

Definitely room for improvement.. Just pulled this out of my ass today to resolve an issue.

I got the idea from this site but with my own needs. I still have to clean up my script.
https://helgeklein.com/blog/2015/02/manual-folder-redirection-with-symbolic-links/

[black3dynamite]

Its near the bottom of the page that says "Symbolic Link Folder Redirection Script"

[JaredBusch]

@black3dynamite said in file sharing in the 21st century:

Its near the bottom of the page that says "Symbolic Link Folder Redirection Script"

Will read that..

My script updated, not tested yet.

$UserName = Read-Host "Enter UserName"
$CreateNextCloudFolder = Read-Host "Is this a new Nextcloud user Y/N?"

$FolderList = "Desktop,Documents,Downloads,Favorites,Music,Pictures,Videos"
$FoldderArray = $FolderList.split(",")

ForEach($Folder in $FolderArray) {
    If($CreateNextCloudFolder -like "y") {
        New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path "C:\Users\$UserName\Nextcloud\$Folder" -Force
    }
    Remove-Item -Path "C:\Users\$UserName\$Folder" -Force -Confirm
    New-Item -ItemType Junction -Path "C:\Users\$UserName" -Name "$Folder" -Target "C:\Users\$UserName\Nextcloud\$Folder" -Force
}

[Dashrender]

in your for statement - why not attempt to copy any data that might exist to the NC location before simply deleting the old folder - I realize there shouldn't be anything there yet, but you never know.

[black3dynamite]

@JaredBusch said in file sharing in the 21st century:

@black3dynamite said in file sharing in the 21st century:

Its near the bottom of the page that says "Symbolic Link Folder Redirection Script"

Will read that..

My script updated, not tested yet.

$UserName = Read-Host "Enter UserName"
$CreateNextCloudFolder = Read-Host "Is this a new Nextcloud user Y/N?"

$FolderList = "Desktop,Documents,Downloads,Favorites,Music,Pictures,Videos"
$FoldderArray = $FolderList.split(",")

ForEach($Folder in $FolderArray) {
    If($CreateNextCloudFolder -like "y") {
        New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path "C:\Users\$UserName\Nextcloud\$Folder" -Force
    }
    Remove-Item -Path "C:\Users\$UserName\$Folder" -Force -Confirm
    New-Item -ItemType Junction -Path "C:\Users\$UserName" -Name "$Folder" -Target "C:\Users\$UserName\Nextcloud\$Folder" -Force
}

I never thought of using PowerShell native commands to create the Junction point.
I've been using cmd.exe /c mklink /J within the powershell script to create the them.

[Obsolesce]

@black3dynamite said in file sharing in the 21st century:

@JaredBusch said in file sharing in the 21st century:

@black3dynamite said in file sharing in the 21st century:

Its near the bottom of the page that says "Symbolic Link Folder Redirection Script"

Will read that..

My script updated, not tested yet.

$UserName = Read-Host "Enter UserName"
$CreateNextCloudFolder = Read-Host "Is this a new Nextcloud user Y/N?"

$FolderList = "Desktop,Documents,Downloads,Favorites,Music,Pictures,Videos"
$FoldderArray = $FolderList.split(",")

ForEach($Folder in $FolderArray) {
    If($CreateNextCloudFolder -like "y") {
        New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path "C:\Users\$UserName\Nextcloud\$Folder" -Force
    }
    Remove-Item -Path "C:\Users\$UserName\$Folder" -Force -Confirm
    New-Item -ItemType Junction -Path "C:\Users\$UserName" -Name "$Folder" -Target "C:\Users\$UserName\Nextcloud\$Folder" -Force
}

I never thought of using PowerShell native commands to create the Junction point.
I've been using cmd.exe /c mklink /J within the powershell script to create the them.

In my PS scripts, I try not to ever include any non-PS.