Topic: Trying to implement group policies

[bcalder01]

Hi all, I know this has been gone over, but I'm getting no joy when trying to implement a group policy.

I have created a test user & put him in a group called "testgroup". After searching high & low, I finally found a German copy of poledit.exe, imported the common.adm template from http://www.pcc-services.com/custom_poledit.html, and as a test, created an NTConfig.POL that disabled Recent Docs & the control panel for a group called testgroup (i.e., the same name as the Samba group created in SME). I then placed the .POL file in /home/e-smith/files/samba/netlogon :

[root@en-fs01 ~]# ls /home/e-smith/files/samba/netlogon/
netlogon.bat  netlogon.template  NTConfig.POL

However, when I log on as testuser (all Windows users are on WinXP Pro SP3 machines), the netlogon.bat runs fine, but the policy isn't applied. Is there an extra step in SME to apply the policy besides copying the file to the netlogon directory?

TIA for the help!

[Stefano]

hi

be sure you are using poledit from w2k resource kit and the adm files from windows xp (search your windows hd for *.adm files.. you'll find many).

HTh
ciao
Stefano

[bcalder01]

Thanks, I think my poledit is old (my adm is from WinXP SP2, so should be OK). Trying to download the w2kRK now and will try again.

[David Harper]

Also, in Windows NT, mandatory policies were stored in NTConfig.MAN. If .POL doesn't work, try this instead.

[chris burnat]

I finally found a German copy of poledit.exe, imported the common.adm template from http://www.pcc-services.com/custom_poledit.html,

This link does not work, you need to remove the dot at end of the URL., correct link is:

http://www.pcc-services.com/custom_poledit.html

[bcalder01]

Still no joy ... Tried renaming NTConfig.POL to NTConfig.MAN, no luck there either. Sorry about the syntactical boo-boo, I'll be more careful.

Just got another copy of poledit, I'll try it & see if it works better.

Thanks for the input!

[chris burnat]

Still no joy ... Tried renaming NTConfig.POL to NTConfig.MAN, no luck there either. Sorry about the syntactical boo-boo, I'll be more careful.
Just got another copy of poledit, I'll try it & see if it works better.
Thanks for the input!

bccalder01, when you sort out this issue (and I am sure you will succeed), consider documenting it as a howto in the wikis.  Many of us would be very grateful.  Its an interesting topic.  Regards

[Stefano]

Also, in Windows NT, mandatory policies were stored in NTConfig.MAN. If .POL doesn't work, try this instead.

in my experience (clients are XP pro and w2k pro) everything is working fine with NTConfig.POL..

my 2c

Ciao
Stefano

[bcalder01]

Thanks for the encouragement, Chris, but it's getting discouraging. If I do crack it, I will certainly add to the pool of knowledge.

I have a suspicon ... all of our target workstations are WinXP Pro SP3 Spanish. The first poledit I used (from 2003) was in German. I was using both Spanish & English .adm's to create the NTConfig.pol - the Spanish templates come from the one Win2003 Server we have onsite. The latest, newer, poledit I got (thanks!) is in English. I created another .POL to no effect, except that poledit complained at the beginning about the Spanish characters from the Win2003 templates & wouldn't load them. Aha. 

I suspect three things:
1) German-Spanish & English-Spanish character mismatches prevent the .POL from being read correctly,
and/or:
2)The common.adm & winnt.adm I got from the Win2K3 server don't work with poledit, 
and/or:
3) Newer, post-SP3 settings, especially in IE7, aren't applied when using these older .adm's.

I hope I can get this going, because it would make managing the office less like herding cats!!