[gptalk] Re: Can Group Policy Settings be accessed and set from an application
- From: "Webmaster eSupport" <web-master@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <gptalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 27 Oct 2006 11:57:36 -0400
In Vista, I found ntuser.pol located in C:\ProgramData folder. Your polviewer
tool shows the following registry key:
Registry Key: SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\AppCompat
Registry Value: **del.DisablePCA
Value Type: REG_SZ
Also, I find admin template file C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions\AppCompat.admx
which contains the following:
<policy name="AppCompatTurnOffProgramCompatibilityAssistant_1" class="User"
displayName="$(string.AppCompatTurnOffProgramCompatibilityAssistant)"
explainText="$(string.AppCompat_TurnOffProgramCompatibilityAssistant_Help)"
key="Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\AppCompat" valueName="DisablePCA">
<parentCategory ref="AppCompat" />
<supportedOn ref="windows:SUPPORTED_WindowsVista" />
</policy>
I don't fully understand how Vista configuration parameters work with the
registry and registry.pol files in the GPOs. For the above Vista configuration
parameter to control enabling or disabling Program Compatibility Assistant,
does it mean it can be controlled by registry key
="Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\AppCompat\DisablePCA"? If so, is it
located under HKLM or HKCU? Or, do I need to work with ntuser.pol file?
Dave
----- Original Message -----
From: Darren Mar-Elia
To: gptalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Thursday, October 26, 2006 5:15 PM
Subject: [gptalk] Re: Can Group Policy Settings be accessed and set from an
application
Pol files exist in the GPO itself. So, in both XP and Vista, that's in SYSVOL
under the policies folder. You're probably finding ntuser.pol in XP, which is a
slightly different file. It also exists in Vista but maybe its harder to find...
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: gptalk-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:gptalk-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Webmaster eSupport
Sent: Thursday, October 26, 2006 2:15 PM
To: gptalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [gptalk] Re: Can Group Policy Settings be accessed and set from an
application
Thanks for the tip about you polviewer utility. I see how it works on XP.
However, I'm not able to find and "pol" files in Vista. Does anyone know where
they are located on Vista?
Dave
----- Original Message -----
From: Darren Mar-Elia
To: gptalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Thursday, October 26, 2006 12:40 PM
Subject: [gptalk] Re: Can Group Policy Settings be accessed and set from an
application
Admin Templates in Vista, like OS' before it, are governed by template
files. In Vista these are called ADMX files and are XML files that govern where
a particular policy makes a setting in the registry. This was the same with
ADMs in previous OS'. These files serve as the template for values that are
written to the registry.pol files in the GPOs. This file is simply a
Unicode-encoded text file that can be read to and written from (see my
polviewer utility for a registry.pol reader). So, programmatically you could
get into this file and write your setting provided you know the value in the
registry that underlies it, which you can glean from the ADMX files in
c:\windows\policydefinitions.
You might also look at the IGroupPolicy object interface. Others on the
list have more experience with this interface than I do but it does provide
some programmatic access into registry policy.
Darren
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: gptalk-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:gptalk-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Webmaster eSupport
Sent: Thursday, October 26, 2006 9:08 AM
To: gptalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [gptalk] Re: Can Group Policy Settings be accessed and set from an
application
In Vista, there is configuration parameter "Turn Off Program Compatibility
Assistant" defined as a group policy under Computer
Configuration->Administrative Templates->Windows Components->Application
Compatibility. Do you think it's possible to access this configuration
parameter through application code? I've looked up registry.pol on on MSDN but
not seen anything that leads me directly to this parameter. If it's possible,
Vista specific policy info probably not published on MSDN yet.
Dave
----- Original Message -----
From: Darren Mar-Elia
To: gptalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Thursday, October 26, 2006 11:09 AM
Subject: [gptalk] Re: Can Group Policy Settings be accessed and set from
an application
Noting changes in particular in Vista. Note that policy areas such as
Admin Templates, and Software Restriction policy store their settings in a
published format (look up registry.pol in MSDN) so its not completely opaque,
but I think that because each CSE has historically been owned by the respective
product groups within MS, and no one dictated a standard set of interfaces, it
would have been difficult for MS to publish this information. For example,
Admin Template settings are driven by ADM/ADMX files but security settings, for
example, are hard-coded into the GP editor DLL responsible for that extension
(for the most part).
Darren
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: gptalk-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:gptalk-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Webmaster eSupport
Sent: Thursday, October 26, 2006 7:55 AM
To: gptalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [gptalk] Re: Can Group Policy Settings be accessed and set from
an application
So if I understand this correctly, it is possible to configure group
policies through an appliction with Microsoft's gpedit.msc application, but
Microsoft is just not sharing the methods with anyone so we're not forced to
use their application. That's unbelievable, but not surprising. Up to now I
think most users do not have a need to touch group policy settings. However,
with Vista Microsoft is relying more heavily on group policy settings for Vista
configuration settings.
Does anyone know a method for accessing group policies specific for
Vista.
Dave
----- Original Message -----
From: Darren Mar-Elia
To: gptalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Thursday, October 26, 2006 10:07 AM
Subject: [gptalk] Re: Can Group Policy Settings be accessed and set
from an application
Generally speaking, you can't do this. There is no API that will get
you access to all GP settings. Part of the problem here is that each CSE that
MS ships contains its own mechanism for writing and storing settings, with
their own formats. So, there is no unified API that provides the single
interface.
Not a great answer, but one that I've been repeating since about 1999
:). Maybe one day it will get solved.
Darren
------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: gptalk-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:gptalk-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Webmaster eSupport
Sent: Thursday, October 26, 2006 6:57 AM
To: gptalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [gptalk] Can Group Policy Settings be accessed and set from an
application
Hello All,
I have an application where I need to manage group policy settings from
an application. I'm new to Group Policies in Windows, have been reading
everything I can find but so far I've not definitive methods which enable group
policy settings to be read and configured from a C++ application. Seems to me
that if group policies can be configured with Windows group policy editor, it
must be possible to implement my own application.
Appreciate any help anyone can provide to get me up to speed on this.
Thanks in advance,
Dave
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