• Article

Use Group Policy to specify where users can save 2007 Office system files

Updated: July 23, 2009

Applies To: Office Resource Kit

This Office product will reach end of support on October 10, 2017. To stay supported, you will need to upgrade. For more information, see , Resources to help you upgrade your Office 2007 servers and clients.

 

Topic Last Modified: 2016-11-14

You can use Group Policy to specify and enforce the locations (or folders) where users can save 2007 Microsoft Office system files. This article describes how to configure Group Policy policy settings to accomplish this task, and then lists the corresponding values that are set in the registry on user computers.

To specify and enforce locations where users can save 2007 Office system files

To specify and enforce the locations through the Group Policy Object Editor, you must configure both the Activate Restricted Browsing and Approve Locations policy settings. You enable the Activate Restricted Browsing policy setting to restrict the locations available to users in the Save As dialog box, and then enable the Approve Locations policy setting to specify the restricted locations, such as c:\Windows or \\server\share. The subfolders of the locations you specify will also be available to users in the Save As dialog box.

Note

You perform the following procedure on a domain Group Policy object (GPO) that contains the set of users to which you want these configurations to apply.
You must have Edit permission for the GPO. For more information about permissions, see the Group Policy object permissions in Group Policy Management Console section in Enforce settings by using Group Policy in the 2007 Office system.
To use the policy settings as explained in this article, you must install the 2007 Office system (SP2) Administrative Template files (ADM, ADMX, ADML) and Office Customization Tool (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=144523) update.

Specify and enforce locations in the Save As dialog box

  1. Open the Group Policy Management Console (GPMC). Click Start, click Control Panel, click Administrative Tools, and then click Group Policy Management.

  2. In the console tree, double-click Group Policy Objects in the forest and domain that contain the Group Policy object (GPO) that you want to edit. This is located in Forest name, Domains, Domain name, Group Policy Objects.

  3. Right-click the GPO that you want to modify and then click Edit. The Group Policy Object Editor opens.

  4. In the tree view, expand User Configuration, expand Administrative Templates, expand Microsoft Office 2007 System, expand File Open/Save dialog box, and in the reading pane click Restricted Browsing.

  5. In the details pane, double-click Activate Restricted Browsing.

  6. On the Setting tab, select Enabled, and then click OK.

  7. Double-click Approve Locations.

  8. On the Setting tab, select Enabled, and then click Show.

  9. In the Show Contents dialog box, click Add.

  10. In the Add Item dialog box, in the Enter the name of the item to be added text box, type the name of the location you want to add to the Save As dialog box, and then in the Enter the name of the value of the item to be added box, type the path to the location you want to add to the approved locations in the Save As dialog box.

  11. Click OK, and then repeat steps 7 and 8 to add more locations if needed.

  12. After you add all of your approved locations, click OK to exit the Show Contents dialog box.

Important

These settings will affect the locations displayed on the My Places bar in the Save As dialog box. Therefore, we recommend that you add at least one approved location to the My Places bar by using the Places Bar Location [1-10] setting: In the tree view, click User Configuration, click Administrative Templates, click Microsoft Office 2007 System, click File Open/Save dialog box, and then click Places Bar Locations. If there are no approved locations in the My Places bar, users might not be able to open the Save As dialog box.

Registry settings

When you configure the Activate Restricted Browsing and Approve Locations policy settings, the following corresponding registry entries are configured on the user computers.

Note

As an alternative to using Group Policy, you can create a script to deploy these registry settings to user computers. For information about scripting, see Script Center (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=158045).

Registry key Description Values

HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Common\Open Find\RestrictedBrowse

This registry key stores the locations available to users in the Save As dialog box.

Name = name of the location

Value = path to the approved location (subfolders are included)

HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Common\Open Find\RestrictedBrowse\OptIn

This registry specified the applications in the 2007 Office system to which the Restricted Browsing setting applies.

Name = [2007 Office system application]. This is a DWORD (32-bit) value key that is enabled when set to 1. Valid entries are:

Office Access 2007

Office Excel 2007

Office SharePoint Designer 2007

Office InfoPath 2007

Office OneNote 2007

Office InterConnect 2007

Office Outlook 2007

Office PowerPoint 2007

Office Project 2007

Office Publisher 2007

Office Visio 2007

Office Word 2007