Using System Policy Templates

When you run System Policy Editor, Windows 98 opens the default policy template, which contains existing policies you can enable or modify. A template is a listing of the possible policies you can use. By default, this template file is named Windows.adm and is stored in the Windows INF directory.

Creating a Custom System Policy Template

You can create custom system policy templates (ADM files) and switch between multiple templates in System Policy Editor. For example, it might be helpful to have system policy settings for corporate-specific applications, such as an in-house database, custom front end, or electronic mail package. After a template has been customized, you can load it and use it to set values in the registry.

Note

If you want to define system policies for applications, the applications must be able to read the Windows 98 registry.

Creating your own template is helpful when you want to define a specific set of registry settings in your system policies, including settings not definable by default through System Policy Editor. As shown in Figure 8.2, the template defines the policies you can set through System Policy Editor. Changes you make there are reflected in the policy file (shown in the example as Config.pol), which in turn updates the registry when the user logs on.

Figure 8.2 Using a custom system policy template to define policies

To use a template other than the default template

1. In System Policy Editor, make sure all policy files are closed.
2. On the Options menu, click Template.
3. Click Open Template, and select an ADM file to be your template to begin setting system policies. Click Open.
4. Click Close to return to System Policy Editor.

You can create your own templates to be read by System Policy Editor. Users can then load a template and use it to set values in the registry. To create a template, use a text editor, such as WordPad, to edit or write an ADM file. You can open the default template named Windows.adm in the Windows INF directory to use as an example.

A template uses several key words, syntaxes, and symbols, as summarized in the following list.

• Class:

  CLASS category_type
  

• Category:

  CATEGORY name
  [KEYNAME key_name]
  [... policy definition statements ...]
  END CATEGORY
  

• Policy:

  POLICY name 
  [KEYNAME key_name]
  [... part definition statements ...]
  END POLICY
  

• Part:

  PART name part_type
  type-dependent data
  [KEYNAME key_name ]
  VALUENAME value_name
  END PART
  

Table 8.12 describes the keywords in system policy templates. Following this table are lists of the controls and values that can be defined in templates.

Table 8.12 System policy template keywords

A system policy template uses the part control indicators listed in Table 8.13.

Table 8.13 System policy template part control indicators

A system policy template uses the type-specific information listed in Table 8.14.

Table 8.14 System policy template type-specific information