Question

Restrict installing executables with Group Policy

Asked by: rgutwein

Hello,

Is there a way in Group Policy where I can stop a user from installing any type of executable program.  I work in a School District, and I do not want a student installing programs on a computer.

I found this on the internet:
Expand User Configuration \ Administrative Templates \ System Open the policy named Run Only Allowed Windows Applications Enable the policy and click Show

But I am not sure if this will stop all executable files from being installed.  Could someone clear this up for me?  

Thanks!



Randy

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Asked On
2007-01-24 at 06:22:25ID22134712
Tags

restrict

,

policy

,

group

,

installing

Topic

Operating Systems Miscellaneous

Participating Experts
4
Points
250
Comments
8

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Answers

 

by: jonyeltonPosted on 2007-01-24 at 06:56:31ID: 18386111

Well, the easiest thing to do is make all the students restricted users.  By default this will block them from being able to do just about anything administrativley.

 

by: rgutweinPosted on 2007-01-24 at 06:59:34ID: 18386146

Thanks for the quick response.  How would I be able to do that?  And what are the Restrictions on the Restricted User?

Thanks!

 

by: jonyeltonPosted on 2007-01-24 at 07:05:53ID: 18386239

How do you create user accounts?  Are you using Windows 2003 in Active Directory?

If so, go to the server and launch Active Directory for Users and Computers.
Go to users, and you should see a list of all the users for your domain.  You can right click on any name, and select the Member Of Tab.  This will list the user accounts that the user has permission for you.

Here is a very good tutorial.  But all this work should have been done when the network was first created.  Good luck.

http://www.informit.com/articles/article.asp?p=680826&rl=1

 

by: rgutweinPosted on 2007-01-24 at 07:38:34ID: 18386603

Thank you for your help!

One problem I have here is that I have a default "Student" account that was given the local administrator rights for a certain program.  Is there a way where I can change their local admin rights to "Power User" or an account where they do not have the ability to install a program.

I thought that group policies overwrite any local policies, but that does not seem the case here.  If I have a group policy that is set to restrict installation of a file, the local admin (which the Student account is apart of) is able to install a program, even with the group policy on it.

 

by: bigjimbo813Posted on 2007-01-24 at 08:12:05ID: 18386971

This should remove the local student account from the admin group and move it to the power users.

Put this in a batch file and then add this to the logon script for your domain

net localgroup administrators "student" /delete
net localgroup "Power Users" "student" /add

 

by: The_IT_GaragePosted on 2007-01-24 at 08:51:55ID: 18387511

Doesn't he need to do them in reverse order (add to Power Users first) - taking student out of administrators would preclude student from adding himself to Power Users...unless it doesn't take effect until next login.

 

by: trarthurPosted on 2007-01-24 at 11:28:10ID: 18389041

"One problem I have here is that I have a default "Student" account that was given the local administrator rights for a certain program."

If you have the time and energy, you can use filemon and regmon to monitor what the program in question is accessing.  Once you have narrowed
down a specific folder/file/registry key, you can relax permissions on just that.  i.e. giving all users full control to the program's folder only.  Once you set that, you can then make the Student account a normal user.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/FileAndDiskUtilities.mspx

Looks like MS has taken down regmon.

Alternate source here:

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Programming/Other-Programming-Files/Regmon.shtml

Note that regmon will generate ALOT of information very quickly.


Let us know.

 

by: rgutweinPosted on 2007-02-01 at 14:34:08ID: 18448383

Thank you for all your help.  I decided to use bigjimbo813's batch file suggestion, along with Group Policies to take care of the rest.

Thanks!

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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