How to control the installation of Add-Ons in Internet Explorer.

For many organizations, controlling what can be added to clients help to reduce the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of a network. Controlling what extensions can be added to Internet Explorer is part of the TCO reduction effort by preventing the IT staff from support issues caused me non-approved Add-ons.

The first thing we need to do is to discover the GUID of an Add-On that we want to prevent from being installed. For this reason, you fist need to install it on a test client.

Once installed, open Internet Explorer.

Click Tools / Manage Add-ons.

Browser to the Add-on that you want to prevent the installation of.

Right mouse click the Add-on and select More Information.

Record the GUID ( curly braces as well ) and the Name.

Close the window.

Open a Group Policy that is scoped to the computers that your want to prevent add-ons from being installed.

Browse to Computer Configuration / Policies / Administrative Templates / Windows Components / Internet Explorer / Security Features / Add-on Management.

Enable the policy for Add-on List.

Click Show and enter the Name in the Value Name field and the Class ID/GUID in the Value field. Click OK when done.

Click OK again.

Enable the policy for Deny all add-ons unless specifically allowed in the Add-on List.

Now, only the Add-on that you listed can be installed once this GPO is applied to your clients.

Comments

Sticky Key problem between Windows Server 2012 and LogMeIn

This week I instructed my first class using Windows Server 2012 accessed via LogMeIn and discovered a Sticky Key problem every time you press the Shift key. Here is my solution to resolve this. First off, in the Preferences of LogMeIn for the connection to the Windows Server, click General . Change the Keyboard and mouse priority to Host side user and click Apply at the bottom. On the Windows 2012 server, open the Control Panel – Ease of Access – Change how your keyboard works . Uncheck Turn on Sticky Keys . Click Set up Sticky Keys . Uncheck Turn on Sticky Keys when SHIFT is pressed five times . Click OK twice. If you are using Windows Server 2012 as a Hyper-V host, you will need to redo the Easy of Use settings on each guest operating system in order to avoid the Sticky Key Problem. Updated Information: March 20, 2013 If you continue to have problems, Uncheck Turn on Filter Keys .

Where did a User’s Account Get Locked Out?

Updated: May 15, 2015 When this article was originally published, two extra carriage returns were add causing the code to malfunction. The code below is correct. My client for this week’s PowerShell class had a really interesting question. They needed to know where an account is being locked out at. OK, interesting. Apparently users hop around clients and forget to log off, leading to eventual lock out of their accounts. The accounts can be unlocked, but are then relocked after Active Directory replication. This problem is solved in two parts. The first one is to modify the event auditing on the network. The second part is resolved with PowerShell. The first part involves creating a group policy that will encompass your Domain Controllers. In this GPO, make these changes. Expand Computer Configuration \ Policies \ Windows Settings \ Security Settings \ Advanced Audit Policy Configuration \ Audit Policies \ Account Management Double click User Account Management C...

How to run GPResult on a remote client with PowerShell

In the past, to run the GPResult command, you would need to either physically visit this client, have the user do it, or use and RDP connection. In all cases, this will disrupt the user. First, you need PowerShell remoting enabled on the target machine. You can do this via Group Policy . Open PowerShell and type this command. Invoke-Command –ScriptBlock {GPResult /r} –ComputerName <ComputerName> Replace <ComputerName> with the name of the target. Remember, the target needs to be online and accessible to you.

Jason Yoder, MCT

Search This Blog