Group and System Policy

Group and System Policy

Everything I've presented up until this point helps you deploy user settings for Office 2003 Editions and sometimes for other programs. If you want to manage settings, however, you must use Group Policy or system policies. Group Policy is a feature of Windows 2003 and of Active Directory. System policies is a legacy policy-based management technology that's still available if you haven't yet deployed Active Directory.

Chapter 7, “Using Registry-Based Policy,” describes policies in detail. Part IV, “Appendixes,” describes many of the policies in Office 2003 Editions and tells you where to find them in the registry. The Microsoft Office 2003 Editions Resource Kit provides policy templates (ADM files) that you can use with either Group Policy or system policies. It installs several ADM files in %SystemRoot%\Inf, such as OFFICE11.ADM, which contains policy settings that are common to all Office 2003 Editions programs.

When to Use Which Tools

Table 17-1 describes common Office 2003 Editions configuration scenarios and which methods and tools to use for each scenario.

Table 17-1 Office Configuration Scenarios

Scenario	Method	Tool
Distribute a standard default Office 2003 Editions configuration.	Add an OPS file to a transform.	The Profile Wizard and the Custom Installation Wizard (Customize Default Application Settings page)
Configure a few options, or overwrite the OPS file's settings without rebuilding it.	Add user settings to a transform.	The Custom Installation Wizard (Change Office User Settings page)
Set default security levels, and customize trusted sources list.	Specify security settings in a transform.	The Custom Installation Wizard (Specify Office Security Settings page)
Set migration and e-mail options for Outlook.	Specify Outlook settings in a transform.	The Custom Installation Wizard (Outlook: Custom Default Settings page)
Specify settings that are not captured in an OPS file.	Add registry values to a transform.	The Custom Installation Wizard (Add/Remove Registry Entries page)
Distribute a default Office 2003 Editions configuration but store one or more OPS files separately from the MST file.	Run the Profile Wizard during Setup.	The Profile Wizard and the Custom Installation Wizard (Add Installations and Run Programs page)
Preserve users' custom settings from a previous version instead of specifying new default settings.	Enable Setup to migrate settings from a previous version of Office.	Default behavior
Set unique options for Office 2003 Editions Multilingual User Interface Packs or for other chained packages.	Specify settings in the transform applied to the chained package.	The Custom Installation Wizard and Setup.ini
Distribute a default Office 2003 Editions configuration that overwrites individual users' settings.	Run the Profile Wizard as a stand-alone tool after installing Office 2003 Editions.	The Profile Wizard
Modify user settings after installing Office 2003 Editions.	Distribute a CMW file after installing Office 2003 Editions.	The Custom Maintenance Wizard
Prevent users from modifying settings.	Set policies	System Policy Editor or Windows 2003 Group Policy