Managing Users’ Options with System Policies

New and Improved Office 2000 System Policies

Office 2000 has enhanced and improved system policies, with more policies and a new version of the System Policy Editor.

As part of the enhanced support for system policies in Office 2000, policies are now stored in a separate HKCU\Software\Policies subkey in the Windows registry, rather than in the various Software subkeys, such as Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Word or Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Excel.

Note   Because the system policies are stored in a different part of the registry for Office 2000, system policies from previous versions of Office applications do not transfer to the new version. Use the new system policy templates to reset your system policies for Office 2000.

Other system policy enhancements in Office 2000 include the following.

Top

Easily enforceable policies

When you set a policy for a user interface element, such as a menu command or toolbar button, that element appears dimmed in the user interface, so users cannot use or reset the option. Previously, users could change settings in the user interface, even if there were system policies set for that option.

Now, even if a user does manage to change a setting, that setting is changed back when the user quits and restarts the application, rather than when the user next logs on.

Top

Safer policies

In Windows 2000, you can set an access control list (ACL) to lock the Policies subkey in the Windows registry. This step prevents users from changing policies by modifying settings in their registry.

Top

More Excel and Word policies

Most of the settings in the Options dialog box (Tools menu) in Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel can now be set by policy, except for settings that are stored in the document or that are not permanently stored. Many of the settings previously stored as binary files in the Word Settings subkey and the Excel Options subkey have now been incorporated into the Policies subkey.

Top

More intuitive settings

The new version of the System Policy Editor allows you to set a policy as either enforced (selected) or not enforced (cleared). After you set the policy, you then specify the value for the enforced setting.

Top

Policies that can be undone

In the previous version of the System Policy Editor, you could stop enforcing a system policy, but you could not return client computers to their original configuration. With Office 2000, however, you can set a policy and later clear the policy — and return client computers to their previous state, whether that state is the application default or a user’s customized setting.

Top

Policies that accept environment variables

The new version for the System Policy Editor and the Office 2000 system policy templates now accept environment variables. Environment variables take the place of actual file names, paths, and other changeable values. By using environment variables, you can use a variable instead of a specific path, which might not be valid for every client computer. When the policy is enforced, the variable is automatically expanded to the correct value for each client computer.