Managing Users’ Options with System Policies

System Policies and the Windows Registry

You use the System Policy Editor to create a system policy file, based on the system policy templates, and then store that file on a network server. When users log on to the network, the system policy file is downloaded to client computers, and then the Windows registry is updated to use the values specified in the system policy file.

Later, you can update client computers by using new system policies, and the Windows registry for each client computer is updated when the user next logs on.

Where are policies stored in the Windows registry?

In earlier versions of Office, system policies were stored in the Software subkey, under whatever subtree they affected (for example, HKEY_CURRENT_USER). System policies for Office 2000 are now consolidated in a separate Policies subkey under the HKCU\Software subkey in the Windows registry.

The Policies subkey mirrors most of the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software
\Microsoft\Office\9.0 subkey. Placing all of the system policies together in the same subkey prevents Windows registry errors and also makes it possible for administrators to lock the Policy subkey in Windows NT.

The following example shows the hierarchy of the Policies subkey in the Windows registry.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER
    Software
        Policies
            Microsoft
                Office
                    9.0
                        Access
                        Binder
                        Common
                        Excel
                        Graph
                        Outlook
                        PowerPoint
                        Word

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Locating the registry entry that corresponds to a system policy

Each system policy in a policy template corresponds to one or more entries in the Windows registry. If you want to find out exactly what entries in the Windows registry correspond to a particular policy, you can open the policy template in Notepad, and then look for that policy.

The policy template files are divided into categories, and each category lists the Windows registry subkey that contains the entries for that category. Each specific policy entry in the template lists the Windows registry value name that the policy affects and the specific Windows registry value data that is set when the policy is turned on or off.

For example, in the Word9.adm template, the following policy entry lists the Windows registry entries that are set when you disable the Insert Hyperlink shortcut key:

POLICY !!DisableShortcutKeys
KEYNAME Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Word\DisabledShortcutKeysCheckBoxes
    PART !!InsertHyperlinkKey CHECKBOX
    VALUENAME InsertHyperlink
    VALUEON 75,8
    VALUEOFF 0
    END PART    

The double exclamation points (!!) in the template file indicate that there is a string reference at the bottom of the file. For example, if you see a line such as !!InsertHyperlinkKey in the template file, this means that text similar to the following will be at the bottom of the file:

[Strings]
InsertHyperlinkKey = "Ctrl+K (Insert | Hyperlink...)"

The following table lists the entries that appear in the policy template files when you open the files in Notepad.