System Policies in SBS2003

I have tried to read about setting system policies but I find that they go
into far too much detail which leaves me confused. I only want to do
something fairly simple. We have a small network with only 8 users. They
are all on the same domain and we only have one domain. I want to stop
users from being able to save things onto the local hard drives. They need
to put everything onto the server. So, I am guessing that that means that I
need to remove the local drive from any browse lists and from windows
explorer and so on. I think that going along with that I want to redirect
My Documents to the server as well.

Am I on the right track here?

Now, I tried to set this up. It seemed straight-forward but it didn't work.
As I said earlier, I cannot understand the comprehensive explanations of
system policies, usually made complicated because they explain all the
functions available for far more comlicated networks. I could do with
someone just giving me a procedure for setting up this kind of thing for
every user on the domain. I would have thought that a simple example of how
to set a system policy could be explained in about 10 instructions, rather
than 10 hours of reading which i don't understand anyway.

Does anyone know of a site that might give me a set of instructions for
setting a simple system policy? Or is there anyone out there that would be
kind enough to tell me themselves?

Remember I am using SBS 2003.

Thanks
Andy

if you are only interested in users saving files on the server rather than
locally, i wouldn't get involved in setting up a policy, especially
considering your lack of experience in it. my suggestion would be to set
aside an area somewhere on your server for users home directories, then
redirect the my documents folder to that location. for example, in the user
properties, you can set a home directory and map a drive to it. for example,
drive j. when they login, their drive j will be pointing to
\\server\username then for each user, right click my documents folder and go
to properties. on the target tab, click the move button and select drive j
(or whatever letter you chose). whatever is in that folder will be moved to
that location on the server. and when they access the my documents folder,
it won't be going to c:\documents and settings\username\my documents, it
will be looking at the server, and the users won't see the difference.

"Andy" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:2nZZc.552$(E-Mail Removed)...
>I have tried to read about setting system policies but I find that they go
> into far too much detail which leaves me confused. I only want to do
> something fairly simple. We have a small network with only 8 users. They
> are all on the same domain and we only have one domain. I want to stop
> users from being able to save things onto the local hard drives. They
> need
> to put everything onto the server. So, I am guessing that that means that
> I
> need to remove the local drive from any browse lists and from windows
> explorer and so on. I think that going along with that I want to redirect
> My Documents to the server as well.
>
> Am I on the right track here?
>
> Now, I tried to set this up. It seemed straight-forward but it didn't
> work.
> As I said earlier, I cannot understand the comprehensive explanations of
> system policies, usually made complicated because they explain all the
> functions available for far more comlicated networks. I could do with
> someone just giving me a procedure for setting up this kind of thing for
> every user on the domain. I would have thought that a simple example of
> how
> to set a system policy could be explained in about 10 instructions, rather
> than 10 hours of reading which i don't understand anyway.
>
> Does anyone know of a site that might give me a set of instructions for
> setting a simple system policy? Or is there anyone out there that would
> be
> kind enough to tell me themselves?
>
> Remember I am using SBS 2003.
>
> Thanks
> Andy
>
>

Thank you "me".

I do want to remove the local hard drive because otherwise it will be too
easy for them to put data onto it. Important background information for
this is that I want to install hard drive protection devices on all the PCs.
When installed, the device ensures that whenever the PC/workstation is
booted, the hard drive reverts back to a state that is identical to the
point at which the device was installed. Because we are using roaming
profiles, all the settings are stored on the server. I just need to make it
as difficult as possible for anyone to place any data on there local hard
drives because this will be lost. If people start to lose data then it will
outweigh the benefits of the hard-drive protection, which will allow any
problems to be sorted out with a simple reboot.

Andy


"me" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> if you are only interested in users saving files on the server rather than
> locally, i wouldn't get involved in setting up a policy, especially
> considering your lack of experience in it. my suggestion would be to set
> aside an area somewhere on your server for users home directories, then
> redirect the my documents folder to that location. for example, in the
user
> properties, you can set a home directory and map a drive to it. for
example,
> drive j. when they login, their drive j will be pointing to
> \\server\username then for each user, right click my documents folder and
go
> to properties. on the target tab, click the move button and select drive j
> (or whatever letter you chose). whatever is in that folder will be moved
to
> that location on the server. and when they access the my documents folder,
> it won't be going to c:\documents and settings\username\my documents, it
> will be looking at the server, and the users won't see the difference.
>
> "Andy" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:2nZZc.552$(E-Mail Removed)...
> >I have tried to read about setting system policies but I find that they
go
> > into far too much detail which leaves me confused. I only want to do
> > something fairly simple. We have a small network with only 8 users.
They
> > are all on the same domain and we only have one domain. I want to stop
> > users from being able to save things onto the local hard drives. They
> > need
> > to put everything onto the server. So, I am guessing that that means
that
> > I
> > need to remove the local drive from any browse lists and from windows
> > explorer and so on. I think that going along with that I want to
redirect
> > My Documents to the server as well.
> >
> > Am I on the right track here?
> >
> > Now, I tried to set this up. It seemed straight-forward but it didn't
> > work.
> > As I said earlier, I cannot understand the comprehensive explanations of
> > system policies, usually made complicated because they explain all the
> > functions available for far more comlicated networks. I could do with
> > someone just giving me a procedure for setting up this kind of thing for
> > every user on the domain. I would have thought that a simple example of
> > how
> > to set a system policy could be explained in about 10 instructions,
rather
> > than 10 hours of reading which i don't understand anyway.
> >
> > Does anyone know of a site that might give me a set of instructions for
> > setting a simple system policy? Or is there anyone out there that would
> > be
> > kind enough to tell me themselves?
> >
> > Remember I am using SBS 2003.
> >
> > Thanks
> > Andy
> >
> >
>
>

oh...you have roaming profiles. well then changing my documents location
won't have too much an effect since the profile would stay on the server,
with the documents. the only advantage i see to that is with my documents in
a different location, the profile is smaller. so if you had some 2gb of
documents, pictures etc in there, the profile wouldn't be 2gb and won't take
a half hour to login

"Andy" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:x2_Zc.623$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Thank you "me".
>
> I do want to remove the local hard drive because otherwise it will be too
> easy for them to put data onto it. Important background information for
> this is that I want to install hard drive protection devices on all the
> PCs.
> When installed, the device ensures that whenever the PC/workstation is
> booted, the hard drive reverts back to a state that is identical to the
> point at which the device was installed. Because we are using roaming
> profiles, all the settings are stored on the server. I just need to make
> it
> as difficult as possible for anyone to place any data on there local hard
> drives because this will be lost. If people start to lose data then it
> will
> outweigh the benefits of the hard-drive protection, which will allow any
> problems to be sorted out with a simple reboot.
>
> Andy
>
>
> "me" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>> if you are only interested in users saving files on the server rather
>> than
>> locally, i wouldn't get involved in setting up a policy, especially
>> considering your lack of experience in it. my suggestion would be to set
>> aside an area somewhere on your server for users home directories, then
>> redirect the my documents folder to that location. for example, in the
> user
>> properties, you can set a home directory and map a drive to it. for
> example,
>> drive j. when they login, their drive j will be pointing to
>> \\server\username then for each user, right click my documents folder and
> go
>> to properties. on the target tab, click the move button and select drive
>> j
>> (or whatever letter you chose). whatever is in that folder will be moved
> to
>> that location on the server. and when they access the my documents
>> folder,
>> it won't be going to c:\documents and settings\username\my documents, it
>> will be looking at the server, and the users won't see the difference.
>>
>> "Andy" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>> news:2nZZc.552$(E-Mail Removed)...
>> >I have tried to read about setting system policies but I find that they
> go
>> > into far too much detail which leaves me confused. I only want to do
>> > something fairly simple. We have a small network with only 8 users.
> They
>> > are all on the same domain and we only have one domain. I want to stop
>> > users from being able to save things onto the local hard drives. They
>> > need
>> > to put everything onto the server. So, I am guessing that that means
> that
>> > I
>> > need to remove the local drive from any browse lists and from windows
>> > explorer and so on. I think that going along with that I want to
> redirect
>> > My Documents to the server as well.
>> >
>> > Am I on the right track here?
>> >
>> > Now, I tried to set this up. It seemed straight-forward but it didn't
>> > work.
>> > As I said earlier, I cannot understand the comprehensive explanations
>> > of
>> > system policies, usually made complicated because they explain all the
>> > functions available for far more comlicated networks. I could do with
>> > someone just giving me a procedure for setting up this kind of thing
>> > for
>> > every user on the domain. I would have thought that a simple example
>> > of
>> > how
>> > to set a system policy could be explained in about 10 instructions,
> rather
>> > than 10 hours of reading which i don't understand anyway.
>> >
>> > Does anyone know of a site that might give me a set of instructions for
>> > setting a simple system policy? Or is there anyone out there that
>> > would
>> > be
>> > kind enough to tell me themselves?
>> >
>> > Remember I am using SBS 2003.
>> >
>> > Thanks
>> > Andy
>> >
>> >
>>
>>
>
>

But what about the system policies? Any advice?
Andy

"me" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> oh...you have roaming profiles. well then changing my documents location
> won't have too much an effect since the profile would stay on the server,
> with the documents. the only advantage i see to that is with my documents
in
> a different location, the profile is smaller. so if you had some 2gb of
> documents, pictures etc in there, the profile wouldn't be 2gb and won't
take
> a half hour to login
>
> "Andy" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:x2_Zc.623$(E-Mail Removed)...
> > Thank you "me".
> >
> > I do want to remove the local hard drive because otherwise it will be
too
> > easy for them to put data onto it. Important background information for
> > this is that I want to install hard drive protection devices on all the
> > PCs.
> > When installed, the device ensures that whenever the PC/workstation is
> > booted, the hard drive reverts back to a state that is identical to the
> > point at which the device was installed. Because we are using roaming
> > profiles, all the settings are stored on the server. I just need to
make
> > it
> > as difficult as possible for anyone to place any data on there local
hard
> > drives because this will be lost. If people start to lose data then it
> > will
> > outweigh the benefits of the hard-drive protection, which will allow any
> > problems to be sorted out with a simple reboot.
> >
> > Andy
> >
> >
> > "me" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> > news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> >> if you are only interested in users saving files on the server rather
> >> than
> >> locally, i wouldn't get involved in setting up a policy, especially
> >> considering your lack of experience in it. my suggestion would be to
set
> >> aside an area somewhere on your server for users home directories, then
> >> redirect the my documents folder to that location. for example, in the
> > user
> >> properties, you can set a home directory and map a drive to it. for
> > example,
> >> drive j. when they login, their drive j will be pointing to
> >> \\server\username then for each user, right click my documents folder
and
> > go
> >> to properties. on the target tab, click the move button and select
drive
> >> j
> >> (or whatever letter you chose). whatever is in that folder will be
moved
> > to
> >> that location on the server. and when they access the my documents
> >> folder,
> >> it won't be going to c:\documents and settings\username\my documents,
it
> >> will be looking at the server, and the users won't see the difference.
> >>
> >> "Andy" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> >> news:2nZZc.552$(E-Mail Removed)...
> >> >I have tried to read about setting system policies but I find that
they
> > go
> >> > into far too much detail which leaves me confused. I only want to do
> >> > something fairly simple. We have a small network with only 8 users.
> > They
> >> > are all on the same domain and we only have one domain. I want to
stop
> >> > users from being able to save things onto the local hard drives.
They
> >> > need
> >> > to put everything onto the server. So, I am guessing that that means
> > that
> >> > I
> >> > need to remove the local drive from any browse lists and from windows
> >> > explorer and so on. I think that going along with that I want to
> > redirect
> >> > My Documents to the server as well.
> >> >
> >> > Am I on the right track here?
> >> >
> >> > Now, I tried to set this up. It seemed straight-forward but it
didn't
> >> > work.
> >> > As I said earlier, I cannot understand the comprehensive explanations
> >> > of
> >> > system policies, usually made complicated because they explain all
the
> >> > functions available for far more comlicated networks. I could do
with
> >> > someone just giving me a procedure for setting up this kind of thing
> >> > for
> >> > every user on the domain. I would have thought that a simple example
> >> > of
> >> > how
> >> > to set a system policy could be explained in about 10 instructions,
> > rather
> >> > than 10 hours of reading which i don't understand anyway.
> >> >
> >> > Does anyone know of a site that might give me a set of instructions
for
> >> > setting a simple system policy? Or is there anyone out there that
> >> > would
> >> > be
> >> > kind enough to tell me themselves?
> >> >
> >> > Remember I am using SBS 2003.
> >> >
> >> > Thanks
> >> > Andy
> >> >
> >> >
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
>
>

if you have my documents pointing to a network, you could configure the
policy to hide drives in my computer so they don't list there

"Andy" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:cp%Zc.265$(E-Mail Removed)...
> But what about the system policies? Any advice?
> Andy
>
> "me" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>> oh...you have roaming profiles. well then changing my documents location
>> won't have too much an effect since the profile would stay on the server,
>> with the documents. the only advantage i see to that is with my documents
> in
>> a different location, the profile is smaller. so if you had some 2gb of
>> documents, pictures etc in there, the profile wouldn't be 2gb and won't
> take
>> a half hour to login
>>
>> "Andy" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>> news:x2_Zc.623$(E-Mail Removed)...
>> > Thank you "me".
>> >
>> > I do want to remove the local hard drive because otherwise it will be
> too
>> > easy for them to put data onto it. Important background information
>> > for
>> > this is that I want to install hard drive protection devices on all the
>> > PCs.
>> > When installed, the device ensures that whenever the PC/workstation is
>> > booted, the hard drive reverts back to a state that is identical to the
>> > point at which the device was installed. Because we are using roaming
>> > profiles, all the settings are stored on the server. I just need to
> make
>> > it
>> > as difficult as possible for anyone to place any data on there local
> hard
>> > drives because this will be lost. If people start to lose data then it
>> > will
>> > outweigh the benefits of the hard-drive protection, which will allow
>> > any
>> > problems to be sorted out with a simple reboot.
>> >
>> > Andy
>> >
>> >
>> > "me" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>> > news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>> >> if you are only interested in users saving files on the server rather
>> >> than
>> >> locally, i wouldn't get involved in setting up a policy, especially
>> >> considering your lack of experience in it. my suggestion would be to
> set
>> >> aside an area somewhere on your server for users home directories,
>> >> then
>> >> redirect the my documents folder to that location. for example, in the
>> > user
>> >> properties, you can set a home directory and map a drive to it. for
>> > example,
>> >> drive j. when they login, their drive j will be pointing to
>> >> \\server\username then for each user, right click my documents folder
> and
>> > go
>> >> to properties. on the target tab, click the move button and select
> drive
>> >> j
>> >> (or whatever letter you chose). whatever is in that folder will be
> moved
>> > to
>> >> that location on the server. and when they access the my documents
>> >> folder,
>> >> it won't be going to c:\documents and settings\username\my documents,
> it
>> >> will be looking at the server, and the users won't see the difference.
>> >>
>> >> "Andy" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>> >> news:2nZZc.552$(E-Mail Removed)...
>> >> >I have tried to read about setting system policies but I find that
> they
>> > go
>> >> > into far too much detail which leaves me confused. I only want to
>> >> > do
>> >> > something fairly simple. We have a small network with only 8 users.
>> > They
>> >> > are all on the same domain and we only have one domain. I want to
> stop
>> >> > users from being able to save things onto the local hard drives.
> They
>> >> > need
>> >> > to put everything onto the server. So, I am guessing that that
>> >> > means
>> > that
>> >> > I
>> >> > need to remove the local drive from any browse lists and from
>> >> > windows
>> >> > explorer and so on. I think that going along with that I want to
>> > redirect
>> >> > My Documents to the server as well.
>> >> >
>> >> > Am I on the right track here?
>> >> >
>> >> > Now, I tried to set this up. It seemed straight-forward but it
> didn't
>> >> > work.
>> >> > As I said earlier, I cannot understand the comprehensive
>> >> > explanations
>> >> > of
>> >> > system policies, usually made complicated because they explain all
> the
>> >> > functions available for far more comlicated networks. I could do
> with
>> >> > someone just giving me a procedure for setting up this kind of thing
>> >> > for
>> >> > every user on the domain. I would have thought that a simple
>> >> > example
>> >> > of
>> >> > how
>> >> > to set a system policy could be explained in about 10 instructions,
>> > rather
>> >> > than 10 hours of reading which i don't understand anyway.
>> >> >
>> >> > Does anyone know of a site that might give me a set of instructions
> for
>> >> > setting a simple system policy? Or is there anyone out there that
>> >> > would
>> >> > be
>> >> > kind enough to tell me themselves?
>> >> >
>> >> > Remember I am using SBS 2003.
>> >> >
>> >> > Thanks
>> >> > Andy
>> >> >
>> >> >
>> >>
>> >>
>> >
>> >
>>
>>
>
>