Group Policy Settings

Microsoft® Windows® Internet Explorer® 8 provided nearly 1,500 Group Policy settings that IT pros can use to manage and control the web browser configuration. For example, Internet Explorer 8 provided Group Policy settings that govern access to settings on the Internet Options dialog box, define security zones, and add or remove websites in a security zone. Internet Explorer 9 adds new Group Policy settings to support new features. Table 3 describes some of these new Group Policy settings. Note that from Internet Explorer 9 Beta to Internet Explorer 9, a few additional policies have been added, based on new features in Internet Explorer 9 and user feedback.

Table 3: New Group Policy Settings for Internet Explorer 9.

Policy name

Policy path

Prevent Deleting Download History

Windows Components\Internet Explorer\Delete Browsing History

Disable add-on performance notifications

Windows Components\Internet Explorer

Enable alternative codecs in HTML5 media elements

Windows Components\Internet Explorer\Internet Control Panel\Advanced settings\Multimedia

Allow Internet Explorer 8 Shutdown Behavior

Windows Components\Internet Explorer

Install binaries signed by MD2 and MD4 signing technologies

Windows Components\Internet Explorer\Security Features\Binary Behavior Security Restriction

Automatically enable newly installed add-ons

Windows Components\Internet Explorer

Turn off Managing SmartScreen Filter

Windows Components\Internet Explorer

Prevent configuration of top result search in the Address bar

Windows Components\Internet Explorer\Internet Settings\Advanced settings\Searching

Prevent Deleting ActiveX Filtering and Tracking Protection data

Windows Components\Internet Explorer\Delete Browsing History

Go to an intranet site for a single word entry in the Address bar

Windows Components\Internet Explorer\Internet Settings\Advanced settings\Browsing

Show tabs below Address bar

Windows Components\Internet Explorer\Toolbars

Prevent users from bypassing SmartScreen Filter's application reputation warnings about files that are not commonly downloaded from the Internet

Windows Components\Internet Explorer

Disable Browser Geolocation

Windows Components\Internet Explorer

Turn off ability to pin sites

Windows Components\Internet Explorer

Turn on ActiveX Filtering

Windows Components\Internet Explorer

Configure Tracking Protection Lists

Windows Components\Internet Explorer\Privacy

Tracking Protection Threshold

Windows Components\Internet Explorer\Privacy

Turn off Tracking Protection

Windows Components\Internet Explorer\Privacy

To add these new Group Policy settings, Internet Explorer 9 installs an administrative template (ADMX file) during normal installation. This file is inetres.admx in %WinDir%\PolicyDefinitions. Internet Explorer 9 also installs a language file for the administrative template (ADML file). This file is inetres.adml in %WinDir%\PolicyDefinitions\LCID, where LCID is a language ID such as en-US.

To create Group Policy Objects (GPOs) in the domain, based on these new settings, you can do one of the following:

See Also

Concepts

Tools Support
Internet Explorer 9 - Overview for IT Professionals