Question

Deny Hard Drive Writing

Asked by: dharvell

I have about 100 end users networked to a server running Windows Server 2003.  We have all user's My Documents mapped to their own network share, for ease of backing up on a daily basis.

The problem is, the users still have full access to their local hard drives (which do not get backed up daily).  Many users ignore our written policy of saving work to their My Documents folder, causing many files to be at risk as they are not being backed up.

Is there a way via group policy (or any other method) to prevent my users from saving to their hard drive, while still making it possible for software to be able to write temporary files that they may need to write to function (ie. Internet Explorer, etc)?

Thanks for the help!

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Asked On
2006-09-19 at 11:41:43ID21995212
Topic

Windows 2003 Server

Participating Experts
1
Points
125
Comments
3

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Answers

 

by: MrMandersonPosted on 2006-09-19 at 11:59:50ID: 17554666

Hi there,

You can prevent access to the local disks via a GPO, Still allowing them to store files etc ont heir loal desktop profile etc..

User Configuration>Administrative Templates>Windows Components>Windows Explorer

- Hide these specified drives in My Computer - Can specifiy wthe drives to hide if you want to
- Prevent access to drives from My Computer - prevent the user gaining access to the drives.

Regards
Steve

 

by: dharvellPosted on 2006-09-19 at 14:29:32ID: 17555933

Just what I needed, thanks!

And the great part is, those that NEED hard drive access can still access it by typing "C:" in the My Computer address bar.  But, for the rest of the users, out of sight is out of mind...

Thanks.

 

by: MrMandersonPosted on 2006-09-19 at 14:36:41ID: 17555987

:D glad to have helped

Regards
Steve

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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