Re: Machine policy registry keys

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. I indeed want to track down why we are writing these
keys just like that but what I don't understand is this. The screensafer
settings are per user settings while the hklm\Software\Policies are machine
policies (Correct ?). So why does windows read these machine keys and
process them as per user keys ? Perhaps it just strips of the
XXX\Software\Policies and then process them for machine and user ? This
would make sure that machine policies override user policies or is that not
how it works (e.g. same key name in user and machine policy) ?

Thanks again,
Jos

"Skywing [MVP]" <skywing_NO_SPAM_@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:%231X7Spk0HHA.1184@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Yes, you can technically do that, but it's discouraged. By doing that you
are throwing away a lot of the nice "magic" of group policies that makes
them easier to manage, though. Group policies should internally set those
registry keys after the final set of policies is determined, but again,
you are throwing away the nice multiple policy resolution work that GPO
can do by going straight to the registry keys.

I'm also not sure how supported it is to rely on those registry keys being
settable directly, although at least for "current" platforms I don't see
how Microsoft could change them without breaking stuff. They could
theoretically change for new OS releases though.

--
Ken Johnson (Skywing)
Windows SDK MVP
http://www.nynaeve.net
"Jos Scherders" <thrower@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:ulSDcGj0HHA.4184@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi,

I have used an Administrative Template to configure screensavers settings
and this works fine except on some PC's. On the PC's where it does not
work I do see the correct settings in Desktop -> Screensaver settings
(e.g. the values I specified in the administrative templates are shown in
grey) but these settings are not the one applied. Instead, the settings
that are applied are the onces stored in the registry keys under
HKLM\Software\Policies\etc.

So my question is. Can an administrator just create registry keys in
HKLM\Software\Policies and they are processed by windows as normal
policies? The screensafer settings are defined as per User settings so I
am surprised by the fact that these per machine keys can override them ?

Can anyone shed some light into how these registry keys are processed by
Windows ?

Thanks a lot,
Jos.




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