Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 User Manual

Page 60

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52 Microsoft Windows NT Server White Paper

each time the System Policy Editor starts.)

Configuring System Policies Based on

Geographic Location

You may choose to enforce certain environment settings based upon geo-

graphic site location or vicinity. At least two methods are available to do this.

Generate a System Policy that contains settings for specific computers. In

each of the machine-specific settings, configure the Remote Update path

to a specific regional server that will be maintaining the regional System

Policy file. When the user logs on at the Windows NT-based workstation

for the first time, because the default mode is Automatic, the workstation

will check the validating domain controller for a policy file. The policy file it

finds will point the policy update configuration to another server. Note,

however, that this does not work for the first logon. When the user next

logs on, Windows NT checks the remote path and continues to use that

path until the System Policy file on the remote server directs otherwise.

Manually configure each of the workstations in a given region or site to

use a remote update path, and change the remote update mode from the

default of Automatic to Manual.

Clearing the Documents Available List

As an alternative to removing the Documents option from the Start menu, you

can set and clear the documents available by clearing the MRUList value in

the registry. Use this registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER

\Software

\Microsoft

\Windows

\CurrentVersion

\Explorer

\RecentDocs

Value: MRUList

Note that you should not delete the value; instead, replace MRUList with a

blank string.

Building Fault Tolerance for Custom Shared Folders

If you want to create a user environment that includes a Custom Shared Pro-

grams Folder and a Custom Shared Desktop, you need to place the source

folders for these shared items on a central server for all users to access. How-

ever, this involves some degree of risk if the server is unavailable. If that

occurs, the user’s Programs menu and desktop would not contain the appro-

priate folders, shortcuts, and files.

To build fault tolerance into this configuration, you can take advantage of

the distributed file system (Dfs) available for the Windows NT Server 4.0 oper-

ating system platform. Dfs, which runs as a service, can provide a share that

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