being you created the dir. manually i am going to assume you didnt not set the proper permissions.

also check /etc/skel this is the dir where all new users get there files. so if you want every new user to get a welcome.note you can put it in there and it will be put in there dir. when there account is made.

if there is a default logon profile make sure they have the proper env. settings to run the CDE env. compair theres with a known good one.