1 00:00:03,030 --> 00:00:03,810 All right. 2 00:00:04,740 --> 00:00:10,080 In this module, we're going to explore the management of Internet Explorer configuration using group 3 00:00:10,080 --> 00:00:10,740 policy. 4 00:00:11,640 --> 00:00:17,070 So with IEEE, you would think Microsoft would be the best at configuring IEEE through group policy. 5 00:00:17,930 --> 00:00:20,420 And unfortunately, that's not the case. 6 00:00:21,320 --> 00:00:26,360 There's been a very mixed history around managing IAE configuration, using group policy. 7 00:00:27,260 --> 00:00:32,450 So before Windows eight shipped, there were essentially three ways to manage IEEE settings or IEEE 8 00:00:32,450 --> 00:00:33,410 configuration. 9 00:00:34,260 --> 00:00:37,980 The first way was with good old administrative templates policy. 10 00:00:38,880 --> 00:00:44,550 So every new version of IEEE would ship with new sets of admin template, ADMA X files and admin files 11 00:00:44,550 --> 00:00:48,750 that provided settings control over features within group policy or within IEEE. 12 00:00:49,620 --> 00:00:54,780 There was also, from the very beginning, an area called IEEE Maintenance Policy, and this was another 13 00:00:54,780 --> 00:00:57,220 way of configuring sets of options within IEEE. 14 00:00:57,240 --> 00:00:59,580 And I'll talk a little bit more about this in a bit. 15 00:01:00,450 --> 00:01:04,740 But it was not necessarily a complete overlap with administrative templates. 16 00:01:05,610 --> 00:01:09,000 It did more than what you could do through administrative templates. 17 00:01:09,880 --> 00:01:16,780 And then finally, when GP preferences became part of the group policy universe, Microsoft added the 18 00:01:16,780 --> 00:01:21,670 capability of configuring i.e. through group policy preferences, internet settings area. 19 00:01:22,570 --> 00:01:27,490 So there were lots of different, sometimes conflicting ways to configure your IEEE settings, and users 20 00:01:27,490 --> 00:01:31,270 were often not clear on which one should be used under which circumstances. 21 00:01:32,200 --> 00:01:38,770 So what Microsoft did, interestingly, is removed one of the options, in other words, IEEE maintenance 22 00:01:38,770 --> 00:01:43,900 policy was removed from Windows eight and any system that had IEEE ten or greater installed. 23 00:01:44,800 --> 00:01:50,410 So we were left with those two ways admin templates and Internet Explorer or a group policy preferences 24 00:01:50,410 --> 00:01:53,920 Internet settings as the two main ways to configure IEEE today. 25 00:01:54,760 --> 00:01:57,310 So what happened to IEEE Maintenance Policy? 26 00:01:58,210 --> 00:02:04,240 Well on systems running Windows eight and above or any system Windows seven, for example, with i.e. 27 00:02:04,240 --> 00:02:05,710 ten or above installed. 28 00:02:06,650 --> 00:02:11,270 The Internet main IEEE maintenance policy under user configuration went away. 29 00:02:11,390 --> 00:02:12,560 It just disappeared. 30 00:02:13,430 --> 00:02:16,820 No more processing of IEEE maintenance policy by users. 31 00:02:17,750 --> 00:02:22,820 So in other words, if you are a user that had previously been running Windows seven with IEEE nine 32 00:02:22,820 --> 00:02:27,800 and you upgraded to IEEE ten and have the Internet Explorer maintenance settings that you had previously 33 00:02:27,800 --> 00:02:30,170 been getting would not be delivered to IEEE ten. 34 00:02:31,030 --> 00:02:32,530 It simply stopped working. 35 00:02:32,560 --> 00:02:35,200 No more editing of IEEE Maintenance Policy. 36 00:02:36,090 --> 00:02:38,520 It just simple disappeared from the policy. 37 00:02:38,550 --> 00:02:45,000 Ed If you were an administrator of these settings now reporting on existing settings would still work. 38 00:02:45,060 --> 00:02:50,220 So you can still see IEEE Maintenance and settings within the PMC in existing GPOs. 39 00:02:51,150 --> 00:02:56,280 You just couldn't edit them and you couldn't process them if you were a user in that was receiving these 40 00:02:56,280 --> 00:02:56,880 settings. 41 00:02:57,780 --> 00:03:03,120 Now it's not really all that bad in the bigger scheme of things, because IEEE Maintenance has had a 42 00:03:03,120 --> 00:03:04,740 history of being super buggy. 43 00:03:05,640 --> 00:03:10,020 There were problems with IEEE Maintenance almost from the beginning of its introduction. 44 00:03:10,890 --> 00:03:14,970 So I wouldn't say that I'm heartbroken about IEEE Maintenance going away. 45 00:03:15,780 --> 00:03:17,940 But it's definitely the way it was done. 46 00:03:17,970 --> 00:03:20,520 I think his call a lot of users by surprise. 47 00:03:21,420 --> 00:03:26,130 And so we'll talk about sort of how to go forward in this new world where we have these two remaining 48 00:03:26,130 --> 00:03:26,670 areas. 49 00:03:27,540 --> 00:03:32,340 And I think the biggest challenge that you're going to find is that you maintenance actually did some 50 00:03:32,340 --> 00:03:34,990 pretty cool stuff from a configuration perspective. 51 00:03:35,880 --> 00:03:41,040 And there is no 1 to 1 replacement in the remaining two policy areas for all of the stuff that IEEE 52 00:03:41,040 --> 00:03:41,850 Maintenance did. 53 00:03:42,030 --> 00:03:47,940 So you sort of have to resort to registry hacks and other methods to try to configure, i.e. if you 54 00:03:47,940 --> 00:03:52,560 were using some of the more, let's say, advanced settings within IEEE Maintenance Policy. 55 00:03:53,460 --> 00:03:56,190 So let's see how the remaining two ones fill the bill. 56 00:03:57,090 --> 00:03:59,130 We've got admin templates settings. 57 00:04:00,030 --> 00:04:04,500 Now, they don't cover all of the things you can do in IEEE from a configuration perspective. 58 00:04:04,560 --> 00:04:07,080 Certainly not everything that IEEE maintenance did. 59 00:04:07,950 --> 00:04:13,440 But the key kind of distinguishing factor about admin template settings for IEEE is that they prevent 60 00:04:13,440 --> 00:04:15,210 the user from changing settings. 61 00:04:16,140 --> 00:04:21,270 So with the user, if you configure admin template settings for the user's browser, they will not be 62 00:04:21,270 --> 00:04:22,770 able to change those settings. 63 00:04:23,670 --> 00:04:28,980 Now alternatively, GP preferences, what it brings to the table are more configuration options than 64 00:04:28,980 --> 00:04:30,510 what you have in admin templates. 65 00:04:30,570 --> 00:04:34,260 So a little bit closer match to what came an IEEE maintenance policy? 66 00:04:35,090 --> 00:04:36,770 And it's sort of easy to use. 67 00:04:36,950 --> 00:04:39,740 I'll show you this in a subsequent part of the module. 68 00:04:40,640 --> 00:04:42,730 But it kind of mimics the IEEE interface. 69 00:04:42,740 --> 00:04:43,490 Exactly. 70 00:04:43,520 --> 00:04:48,620 So it's almost like you're an IEEE configuring IEEE, but it's really just GBE preferences. 71 00:04:49,500 --> 00:04:54,480 And then the other thing that it doesn't do that admin templates does is enforce configuration. 72 00:04:55,410 --> 00:05:00,410 So the user can actually change things that you specify in preferences, internet settings. 73 00:05:00,420 --> 00:05:04,830 And that's a little bit different than what you might find an admin templates, which obviously the 74 00:05:04,830 --> 00:05:08,460 whole goal of that is to lock down the interface user can't change it. 75 00:05:08,460 --> 00:05:08,900 Okay.