Homepage settings through group policy

[Nathan T]

Currently we have within our Group Policy for Windows
Server2003, a policy that sets the default homepage for
all users. This is currently applied in our default
domain policy. The issue is that users can still change
their homepage settings, however, when they log off and
log back on, It's supposed to reset their homepage to the
one we've specified. The Problem is that the homepage
isn't resetting itself like we have defined in our
policy. It's like they're not getting the policy. You
can, however, run the command (gpupdate /force) on the
users workstation and then the homepage will reset itself
to the one we specified. Any help is appreciated.

-Thanks-

 

[Ken]

We have somewhat a similar situation here--the policy
applies, and then sometimes it'll revert back to the
initial IE homepage (the one where it forwards you to
MSN) or it'll just forward to MSN. Gets annoying not
knowing what I should expect to happen at a user's
workstation. I don't want to have to run around to
everyone's computer and type "secedit /refreshpolicy" and
gpupdate.... that's what we have GPO's for, no?

 

[Guest]

Yeah, you're right that's what GPO's are for!!

-----Original Message-----
We have somewhat a similar situation here--the policy
applies, and then sometimes it'll revert back to the
initial IE homepage (the one where it forwards you to
MSN) or it'll just forward to MSN. Gets annoying not
knowing what I should expect to happen at a user's
workstation. I don't want to have to run around to
everyone's computer and type "secedit /refreshpolicy" and
gpupdate.... that's what we have GPO's for, no?


.

 

[Eric Voskuil]

Nathan,

IE Maintenance policy is registered as NoGPOListChanges=1, which means that
it does not apply again unless there is a change to the IE Maintenance
policy (i.e. by the admin). Because the homepage setting can be changed by
the end-user, this policy will not have an affect after its first
application unless the admin changes a setting in this extension. Gpupdate
honors this behavior, but /force overrides it.

In theory you can change the registration to NoGPOListChanges=0, in this
location:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\GPExtensions\{A2E30F80-D7DE-11d2-BBDE-00C04F86AE3
B}

and it will process the policy settings for IEM on each policy refresh, but
there is a computer policy setting to control this behavior:

ADM Templates/System/Group Policy/"Internet Explorer Maintenance policy
processing" : [x] "Process even if the Group Policy objects have not
changed"

Note also that this policy does not process over low links by default -
which can cause it to not get set. You can also change this via the same
policy.

Regards,

Eric Voskuil
Policy Maker
http://www.autoprof.com/policy