Roaming profiles, one maybe acquainted with this back from university days, it’s when you can log into your computer account and find all your files and settings regardless of the PC you are using. Of course, some rules apply, like the PC your are using is allowed to go and fetch your profile.

There is a whole Microsoft solution for this, which consists of Domain Controllers (DC), Active Directory (AD), Domain Name Servers (DNS), workstations, etc.

You have dedicated servers that store all your users and workstation information, settings, scripts, etc.

When you choose a PC and login in with your credentials, first the PC has to be part of the domain, in other words, identified and then the credentials are verified and if they pass, some scripts are run for example mappings in computer window or whatever is configured there

So what happens if, for example, DC goes down and no secondary is there to take its place, well it depends, if you logged into your profile using the same PC, then it is imported to that PC already and will allow you to login but anything that needs verification or executing by accessing DC won’t be applicable, like mapping network drives or any updates won’t be reflected so you won’t see the updates through another PC

When taking a laptop that is part of a domain home and then you either lock it, standby or hibernate and the next day when you plug it into your network you won’t actually import your profile “freshly” and you won’t see all the settings you normally do when you log on when your laptop is hooked on the network, because you are using your profile which is already stored locally from your laptop and if you log off without connecting to the network and log in using another PC, you won’t see the changes.

Just remember just because the screen goes black after sometime whether you lock your laptop, standby or hibernate, doesn’t mean they are all the same. For some settings to be implemented you need to log off and log back on while connecting your laptop to the domain network.