• RSS
  • Twitter
  • FaceBook

Group Policy does what it says

  • Section(s): Admin
  • Published on Aug 22, 2007.
  • Last Modified on Aug 22, 2007.
  • Last Modified by Mitch Tulloch.
  • Rated 1 out of 5 based on 1 votes.
How to avoid getting tripped up by Group Policy settings.
A customer I know wanted to block users from browsing the network, so they enabled the following two Group Policy settings found under User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Windows Explorer:

No computers near me in my network places

No entire network in my network places

After doing this, they discovered that users could still use UNC paths to access network shares directly. Why? Because these Group Policy settings did exactly what they were supposed to do, not what the customer actually wanted i.e. disable network browsing. Moral of the story? Read the description of a Group Policy setting carefully before you enable it so that you know what it will actually do!

***

Mitch Tulloch is lead author for the Windows Vista Resource Kit from Microsoft Press, which is THE book for IT pros who want to deploy, maintain and support Windows Vista in mid- and large-sized network environments. Mitch is also the author of Introducing Windows Server 2008, the first book from Microsoft Press about the exciting new server platform. For more information on these and other books written by Mitch, see www.mtit.com.

About Mitch Tulloch

Mitch Tulloch is a widely recognized expert on Windows administration, networking, and security. He has been repeatedly awarded Most Valuable Professional (MVP) status by Microsoft for his outstanding contributions in supporting users who deploy and use Microsoft platforms, products and solutions. Mitch has published over two hundred articles on different IT websites and magazines, and he has written or contributed to almost two dozen books and is lead author for the Windows 7 Resource Kit from Microsoft Press. For more information, see www.mtit.com .


Article not looking right or info is missing? Let us know so that we can fix it: .


Receive all the latest articles by email!

Receive Real-Time & Monthly WindowsNetworking.com article updates in your mailbox. Enter your email below!
Click for Real-Time sample & Monthly sample

Become a WindowsNetworking.com member!

Discuss your network issues with thousands of other network administrators. Click here to join!

Community Area

Log in | Register

Readers' Choice

Which is your preferred data recovery solution?