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Using the System Policy Editor

How to Set System Policies for Your Organization

By using the System Policy Editor, you can control which Microsoft Office 2000 options are available to your users. You can create system policies and easily distribute the settings from a central administrative installation point.

The Microsoft Office 2000 Resource Kit includes a new version of the System Policy Editor, as well as several system policy templates. You must install the System Policy Editor and these templates on your computer before you can create a system policy file.

Toolbox   The System Policy Editor consists of a file named Poledit.exe and several policy templates. For information about installing these files, see System Policy Editor and Templates.

When you create a system policy file for a client computer, you must run the System Policy Editor on the same operating system that the client computer is running. For example, to create a policy file for Windows NT 4.0 clients, you must run the System Policy Editor on either Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 2000. This limitation results from the fact that Windows 95/98 and Windows NT operating systems have different registries.

Note   The System Policy Editor that comes with Windows 95 does not work with Office 2000. Be sure to install the latest version of the System Policy Editor from the Microsoft Office 2000 Resource Kit or from Windows NT Server version 4.0 with Service Pack 4.

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Create a new policy file

When you use the System Policy Editor to create system policies, you first choose which templates you want to use and create a new policy file, and then you set policies for your users. You cannot add templates after you have created the policy file. Make sure to add in your policy file every policy template you plan to use.

To create a new policy file

  1. Start the System Policy Editor.
  2. On the Options menu, click Policy Template, and then click Add to select the templates you want to use.
  3. On the File menu, click New Policy to create a new policy file.

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Add users, groups, or computers to the policy file

System policies can apply to all users, to a specific user, or to a group of users. They can also apply to a single computer or to all the computers on your network.

The Default User icon and the Default Computer icon are included in your policy file. To apply a system policy to all the users or all the computers on your network, start the System Policy Editor, and then double-click the Default User or Default Computer icon.

You can also add specific users, computers, or groups to your policy file by using the Add User, Add Computer, and Add Group commands on the Edit menu in the System Policy Editor. When you add a user, computer, or group, a new icon appears in the System Policy Editor. Use this icon to set policies for the new user, computer, or group.

Note   The group names or computer names you specify in the System Policy Editor must reference user groups or computers that already exist on the network. You cannot create new groups or computer names from within the System Policy Editor.

After you’ve selected the users, groups, or computers to whom your policy applies, you set the policy or policies you want by using the corresponding Properties dialog box in the System Policy Editor.

Sometimes a user is a member of more than one group. To avoid potential conflicts between group policies, you can set relative priorities so that group policies are applied in a particular order. To set group priorities, click Group Priority (Options menu) in the System Policy Editor.

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Set the policy

In the System Policy Editor, when you double-click one of the user, group, or computer icons, the Properties dialog box appears, listing the available system policies. You scroll through the list of categories in the Properties dialog box to find the policy you want. You expand or collapse categories by clicking the plus sign (+) or minus sign (–), similar to expanding or collapsing folders in Windows Explorer.

When you find the policy you want, you set the policy by selecting the check box next to the policy name. After you select the policy you want, you must specify additional information under Settings to determine what is enforced by the policy. The following two examples show you how to set a simple policy (allowing background saves in Microsoft Word) and a more complex policy (controlling the recently used file list in Microsoft PowerPoint).

Allow background saves in Word

In Word, you can determine whether or not files can be saved in the background while you continue working. If you want to turn on this feature through a policy, you can use the Allow background saves policy to do so.

To set a policy to allow background saves in Word

  1. Start the System Policy Editor.
  2. Double-click the Default User icon.
  3. In the Default User Properties dialog box, click the plus sign (+) next to Microsoft Word 2000.
  4. Click the plus sign next to Tools | Options.
  5. Click the plus sign next to Save.
  6. Select the Allow background saves check box.
  7. Under Settings for Allow background saves, select the Check to enforce setting on; uncheck to enforce setting off check box.
Control the recently used file list in PowerPoint

In PowerPoint, you can control whether the user sees a list of recently used documents on the File menu and, if so, how many file names to display in that list. The following procedure shows how to set a system policy to display five recently used files for all users.

To set a policy for the recently used file list in PowerPoint

  1. Start the System Policy Editor.
  2. Double-click the Default User icon.
  3. In the Default User Properties dialog box, click the plus sign (+) next to Microsoft PowerPoint 2000.
  4. Click the plus sign next to Tools | Options.
  5. Click the plus sign next to General.
  6. Select the Recently used file list check box.
  7. Under Settings for Recently used file list, select the Enable recently used file list check box.
  8. In the Size of recently used file list box, select 5.

    When you save and distribute this policy, all of your PowerPoint users see a recently used file list of five files on the File menu.

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Save and distribute the policy file

After you set the policy values you want, you are ready to save and distribute the policy file. For Windows 95/98 clients, save the policy file as Config.pol. For Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 2000 clients, save the policy file as Ntconfig.pol. Then exit the System Policy Editor.

Next, you need to store the policy file on the network, where it can be downloaded to users’ computers when they log on.

For networks running Windows NT Server, copy Config.pol or Ntconfig.pol to the Netlogon folder of the primary domain controller, as defined for your client computers. When your users next log on, the system policies are automatically downloaded to their computers and their registry settings are updated with the policy settings.

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See also

All of the system policies for a particular application are listed in the policy template for that application. For more information about the policy templates, see Working with System Policy Templates.

For conceptual information about setting policies for specific users, groups, or computers, see Applying System Policies to Selected Users or Groups.

You enable or disable options by selecting a policy and altering the settings for that policy. For conceptual information about setting policies, see Setting System Policies.

In addition to the options you can set for Office 2000, you can set many system-level options through system policies. For more information about setting Windows NT 4.0 options with system policies, search for Windows NT 4.0 Profiles to find the “Guide to Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 Profiles and Policies” white paper on the Microsoft Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/.


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Friday, March 5, 1999
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