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Deploying Windows Live Toolbars in the Enterprise

Applies To: Internet Explorer

This article contains information about the Windows® Live™ Toolbar. The Toolbar is an end-user application that adds Windows Live™ Search and other useful Web tools, including at-a-glance preview information about a user's Windows Live social network and e-mail, to the Internet Explorer® browser window. The Toolbar includes functionality that enterprise administrators can use to customize the Toolbar and to control which features are available to enterprise end users.

Windows Live™ Toolbar

This document is intended for Windows system administrators and provides guidance on how to install and configure the Toolbar for end-users. By defining enterprise-wide policies for the Toolbar, you can determine which buttons and features users can access. For example, you can disable the feature that allow search suggestions from Windows Live™ Search history, or enable users to share their favorite web pages with their Windows Live social network. You can configure Group Policy before deploying the Toolbar, or at any subsequent time.

Important
Group Policy features are supported in Windows Live Toolbar version 14.00.8052.1208.

Custom Buttons

The Windows Live™ Toolbar Custom Button Software Developer's Toolkit (SDK) available at this Microsoft Web site provides the ability to create custom buttons using XML. For example, you can create custom buttons that enable shortcut access to a Web site, the ability to search a Web site directly from the Toolbar by using Windows Live™ Search, or the ability to display information in the button’s menu or in an HTML window.

For example, you could create a custom button that directs new employees to a new hire orientation Web page, that displays a corporate purchasing web page, or that shows important phone numbers from your intranet. Other buttons could use the Internet to show the local weather and traffic conditions or provide headlines from an external news source.

Installing Windows Live Toolbar

You can run a command-line option to deploy Windows Live Toolbar in an enterprise. The following example installs the Window Live Toolbar portion of the Windows Live Suite: wlsetup-all.exe/appselect:toolbar/quiet

Configuring Group Policy Settings

The Toolbar uses Microsoft® Group Policy and the Active Directory directory service to deliver and apply configurations to users and computers. The Toolbar enables you to use a Group Policy administrative template file (.adm) available at this Microsoft Web site to enable, disable, or configure settings and sets the value of the Toolbar keys in each targeted machine's registry. You configure the settings by right-clicking a setting and then clicking Properties. Alternatively, you can use other administration tools, such as logon scripts, to directly modify the registry settings of user machines. For the Group Policy to take effect, you need to restart Internet Explorer. The Windows Live Toolbar Elevation Helper process (wltuser.exe) must be stopped and restarted for the Toolbar policy to take effect.

The following table defines the settings that are available in the Toolbar's Group Policy administrative template.

Setting	Description
Don't allow users to install custom buttons	Enabling this policy removes all user-installed custom buttons from the Toolbar and hides the button that accesses the Windows Live Gallery button. End-users are prevented from installing custom buttons. Buttons located in `%Appdata%\Microsoft\Windows Live Toolbar\Custom Buttons` do not appear in the Toolbar and only buttons located in `%programfiles%\Windows Live\Toolbar\Custom Buttons` appear in the user’s Toolbar. This provides administrators with a method to deploy buttons. Administrator-deployed buttons cannot be uninstalled but the user may configure, hide, unhide and re-order button settings.
Turn off Windows Live buttons	This policy enables administrators to disable all Windows Live buttons so that the buttons are not visible and the user cannot install additional Toolbar buttons. When this policy is disabled or not configured, the user can Show or Hide Windows Live buttons in the Toolbar.
Don't allow changes to the search region	Enabling this policy prevents users from changing the default country and region setting used by Windows Live Search.
Don't allow search suggestions from search history	Enabling this policy prevents displaying suggestions based on search history. When this policy is disabled or not configured, then the user may disable the search history feature via the Options dialog box.
Don't allow search suggestions from popular Live search queries	Enabling this policy disallows displaying search suggestions from popular searches in the results pane. When this policy is disabled or not configured, the user may disable popular search suggestions from the Options dialog box.
Don't allow search filters in custom buttons	Enabling this policy disallows custom button search filters, which can be used to filter Toolbar search results so that only certain types of results are returned. For example, users can enable filters so that only news results are returned by search.
Don't allow users to sign in to Toolbar with Windows Live ID	Enabling this policy disallows Windows Live ID account sign-in and sign-out functionality.
Don't allow users to configure Windows Live Toolbar	Enabling this policy removes the user’s ability to configure Toolbar settings using the Options dialog box.
Don't allow users to send feedback to Microsoft	This policy allows you to disable the feature that enables users to send feedback to Microsoft.
Don't allow Microsoft to collect information on browser and Toolbar usage	Enabling this policy prevents the Toolbar from returning quality monitoring and search instrumentation data to Microsoft.
Turn off Smart Menus in Windows Live Toolbar	Enabling this policy disables the Smart Menu feature which enables users to get additional contextual information about a Web page they’re browsing in Internet Explorer.
Turn off Windows Live Toolbar Maps Button	This policy disables the Maps button which can be used to automatically map addresses found on a Web page.
Turn off Windows Live Toolbar address detection for Maps button and Smart Menus	This policy disables functionality that automatically detects any postal addresses found on the current web page for use with the Maps button or Smart Menu feature.
Turn off syncing of Internet Explorer favorites with Windows Live	Enabling this policy prevents the use of the Toolbar's Internet Explorer favorites synchronization feature.

Registry Key Locations

The following list describes approved registry key locations for the Toolbar.

Computer Policy Settings

HKLM\Software\Policies

HKLM\Software\Microsoft Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Live\Toolbar

User Policy Settings

HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Live\Toolbar

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Live\Toolbar

Group Policy Registry Values

The following table describes registry key values for the Toolbar.

Registry Key	Description	Type	Policy Enabled Value
UserCustomButton	Disallow user installed custom buttons	REG_DWORD	1
SearchRegion	Turn off default search country/regions setting	REG_DWORD	1
SuggestUserHistory	Turn off suggestions from user search history	REG_DWORD	1
SuggestPopular	Turn off suggestions from popular searches	REG_DWORD	1
CustomSearchScopes	Turn off custom button search scopes	REG_DWORD	1
LiveSignIn	Turn off Live sign-in	REG_DWORD	1
Options	Disable access to Toolbar options	REG_DWORD	1
FeedbackLink	Disable feedback link	REG_DWORD	1
UsageData	Prevent sending instrumentation data	REG_DWORD	1
SmartMenus	Turn off Smart Menus	REG_DWORD	1
UsageData	Prevent instrumentation collection and reporting	REG_DWORD	1
SyncFavorites	Disable favorites sync	REG_DWORD	1
WindowsLiveButtonsBar	Disable Windows Live buttons	REG_DWORD	1

Windows Live™ Toolbar

Important Group Policy features are supported in Windows Live Toolbar version 14.00.8052.1208.

Custom Buttons

Installing Windows Live Toolbar

Configuring Group Policy Settings

The following table defines the settings that are available in the Toolbar's Group Policy administrative template.

SettingDescription

Don't allow users to install custom buttons

Enabling this policy removes all user-installed custom buttons from the Toolbar and hides the button that accesses the Windows Live Gallery button. End-users are prevented from installing custom buttons. Buttons located in %Appdata%\Microsoft\Windows Live Toolbar\Custom Buttons do not appear in the Toolbar and only buttons located in %programfiles%\Windows Live\Toolbar\Custom Buttons appear in the user’s Toolbar. This provides administrators with a method to deploy buttons. Administrator-deployed buttons cannot be uninstalled but the user may configure, hide, unhide and re-order button settings.

Turn off Windows Live buttons

This policy enables administrators to disable all Windows Live buttons so that the buttons are not visible and the user cannot install additional Toolbar buttons. When this policy is disabled or not configured, the user can Show or Hide Windows Live buttons in the Toolbar.

Don't allow changes to the search region

Enabling this policy prevents users from changing the default country and region setting used by Windows Live Search.

Don't allow search suggestions from search history

Enabling this policy prevents displaying suggestions based on search history. When this policy is disabled or not configured, then the user may disable the search history feature via the Options dialog box.

Don't allow search suggestions from popular Live search queries

Enabling this policy disallows displaying search suggestions from popular searches in the results pane. When this policy is disabled or not configured, the user may disable popular search suggestions from the Options dialog box.

Don't allow search filters in custom buttons

Enabling this policy disallows custom button search filters, which can be used to filter Toolbar search results so that only certain types of results are returned. For example, users can enable filters so that only news results are returned by search.

Don't allow users to sign in to Toolbar with Windows Live ID

Enabling this policy disallows Windows Live ID account sign-in and sign-out functionality.

Don't allow users to configure Windows Live Toolbar

Enabling this policy removes the user’s ability to configure Toolbar settings using the Options dialog box.

Don't allow users to send feedback to Microsoft

This policy allows you to disable the feature that enables users to send feedback to Microsoft.

Don't allow Microsoft to collect information on browser and Toolbar usage

Enabling this policy prevents the Toolbar from returning quality monitoring and search instrumentation data to Microsoft.

Turn off Smart Menus in Windows Live Toolbar

Enabling this policy disables the Smart Menu feature which enables users to get additional contextual information about a Web page they’re browsing in Internet Explorer.

Turn off Windows Live Toolbar Maps Button

This policy disables the Maps button which can be used to automatically map addresses found on a Web page.

Turn off Windows Live Toolbar address detection for Maps button and Smart Menus

This policy disables functionality that automatically detects any postal addresses found on the current web page for use with the Maps button or Smart Menu feature.

Turn off syncing of Internet Explorer favorites with Windows Live

Enabling this policy prevents the use of the Toolbar's Internet Explorer favorites synchronization feature.