File Share with Offline folders

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Applies To: Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2

Another possibility is to access the rights policy templates directly from a file share. To distribute rights policy template through a file share, not only do you need to define local override and configure an export location for the rights policy templates, but you must also copy the rights policy templates to this shared folder.

To distribute a rights policy template manually:

  1. Configure the AdminTemplatePath using the ADMX file described above

  2. Log on to AD RMS client using an account with local administrative privileges.

  3. Click Start, type regedit.exe in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.

  4. Expand the following registry key:HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Common\DRM

  5. Right-click DRM, click New, and then click Expandable String Value. For the name, type AdminTemplatePath, and then press ENTER.

  6. Double-click the AdminTemplatePath registry value and type in the Value data box “\\Fileserver\Fileshare\Folder” where Fileserver is the name of the file server hosting the Template files, Fileshare is the file share where the templates are shared and Folder is the path within the share to the Template files folder. Click OK.

  7. Close Registry Editor.

You can create the registry value as a REG_SZ or a REG_EXPAND_SZ. If you create the former, as with all registry settings, you must specify the explicit path for the templates. If you create the latter, as with all registry settings, you can specify the path using environment variables. The latter is preferable for portability.

After the file share is enabled and populated with the Policy Template files, the templates should be accessible to the Office applications. Nevertheless, this type of operation has two drawbacks: it prevents applying rights based on templates while the computer is offline and it imposes great stress on the file server hosting the files, as the files will be retrieved every time an Office application is started.

To resolve these two issues you can enable offline access to the templates folder. This can be done from the client by right clicking on the remote folder in explorer and selecting “Always Available Offline”. You might also have to enable Offline Folders in the client by going to the Control Panel, clicking Network and Internet, then clicking Offline Files and in the General tab clicking Enable Offline Files. It can also be done via GPO by setting the “Administratively assigned offline files” option under Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Network\Offline Files in the GPO editor.

Once offline access is enabled for the templates folder and the users have accessed the folders for the first time, they will be able to access the templates from the local cache without downloading the files from the server every time unless the templates change.