IE8 + Default Google Search via GPO (or some other method)

[soveryapt]

Morning all

Right, how do I go about setting Google to be the default Search Engine in IE8 for W7 Professional via GPO (or some other method) from Server 2008R2?

Thanks all
Andy

[bmdixon]

I followed this guide from microsoft. it's a bit confusing at first but i got it working.
How to create custom .adm or .admx files to add search providers to the toolbar search box in Internet Explorer 7

Hope that helps

[tarquel]

bmdixon.... or anyone for that matter....

I must be having a dense moment but followed the admx + adml route, and i while i get that those types auto load into the GPMC in Win7, I cant see the settings to enable anywhere

Any clue as to what im doing wrong there?

[Its for Win7 with IE8 btw]

Cheers
Nath

[bmdixon]

you should see a "Populate list of search providers" under User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Internet Explorer.
If you don't then they aren't getting imported properly. I seem to remember that i forgot that the two files go into slightly different folders.... "%windir%\policydefinitions\" and "%windir%\policydefinitions\language directory"

[tarquel]

hehe yeah.... managed that alright.

However it doesnt appear..... stupid XML rubbish

Not sure what the VERSION is meant to be so I put '1' being I cant find any DWORD's there... actually... I may as well paste what I've got so far...

SearchProvider.admx:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<policyDefinitions xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" revision="1.0" schemaVersion="1.0" xmlns="http://www.microsoft.com/GroupPolicy/PolicyDefinitions">
  <policyNamespaces>
    <target prefix="search" namespace="Microsoft.Policies.search" />
    <using prefix="inetres" namespace="Microsoft.Policies.InternetExplorer" />
  </policyNamespaces>
  <resources minRequiredRevision="1.0" />
  <policies>
      <policy name="PopulateSearchProviderList_1" class="User" displayName="$(string.PopulateSearchProviderList)" explainText="$(string.IE_Explain_PopulateSearchProviderList)"  key="Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchScopes">
      <parentCategory ref="inetres:InternetExplorer" />
      <supportedOn ref="inetres:SUPPORTED_IE7Vista"/>
      <enabledList>
        <item key="Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchScopes" valueName="Version">
            <value>
                <decimal value="1" />
            </value>
        </item>
        <item key="Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchScopes\{763C671D-8D70-44CD-9EEE-A777797419C9}" valueName="DisplayName">
            <value>
                <string>Google</string>
            </value>	
        </item>
        <item key="Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchScopes\{763C671D-8D70-44CD-9EEE-A777797419C9}" valueName="FaviconURL">
            <value>
                <string>http://www.google.com/favicon.ico</string>
            </value>	
        </item>	
        <item key="Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchScopes\{763C671D-8D70-44CD-9EEE-A777797419C9}" valueName="URL">
            <value>
                <string>http://www.google.co.uk/search?q={searchTerms}&amp;sourceid=ie7&amp;rls=com.microsoft:{language}:{referrer:source}&amp;ie={inputEncoding?}&amp;oe={outputEncoding?}</string>
            </value>
        </item>
      </enabledList>
      </policy>
  </policies>
</policyDefinitions>

SearchProvider.adml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<policyDefinitionResources xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" revision="1.0" schemaVersion="1.0" xmlns="http://www.microsoft.com/GroupPolicy/PolicyDefinitions">
  <displayName>Set IE 8 SearchProviders</displayName>
  <description>Sets the Search Providers in IE 8 using Group Policy</description>
  <resources>
    <stringTable>
      <string id="PopulateSearchProviderList">Populate List of search providers</string>
      <string id="IE_Explain_PopulateSearchProviderList">This policy setting will let you populate a list of search providers that will be displayed in Internet Explorer's search box.

If you enable this policy setting and if the "Restrict search providers to a specific list of search providers" Group Policy setting is enabled, this list will be the only list that appears in the Internet Explorer drop-down list. If the "Add a specific list of search providers to the user's search provider list" Group Policy setting is enabled, this list will be added to the user's list of search providers.

If you disable this policy setting or do not configure it, users will have complete freedom to create their own search provider list.</string>
    </stringTable>
  </resources>
</policyDefinitionResources>

EDIT: Seems its not happy when its parsing... i get this:

[Window Title]
Administrative Templates

[Main Instruction]
Encountered an error while parsing.

[Content]
Expected one of the following possible element(s), <parentCategory>, <seeAlso>, <keywords>, <supportedOn>, but found <enabledList> instead.

File C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions\SearchProvider.admx, line 11, column 19

[OK]

Any help here would be great coz Bing is just an annoyance and once sorted, should be able to set the default using this.... once it works

As a side note, has anyone found any decent tutorials [aka not the masses of rubbish on MS's TN site hehe] on making admx/l's? Once I get the hang of it, it should make things a bit easier... i hope.

Cheers for any assist.
Nath

[bmdixon]

I've uploaded the ones i have done. They seem to work so feel free to "pinch" them

[tarquel]

Thanks for this. Have already downloaded it earlier but didnt get a chance to look at it etc so I'll have a game of "spot the difference" in the morning and see whats occurin'

Cheers
Nath

[tarquel]

it was the version part of my post i think.

But happy days, the entry is there and I've been able to eliminate that 'orrible Bing-a-ling-ding from thy Browser.

Many thanks bmdixon

Nath

[nullrock]

BMDIXON you da man. Many many thanks to you for solving this horrible Binga Binga...

[ChrisCallis]

This is what I view as the main dif btwn google and the other big players. MS and apple will make it difficult to interface their products with competing products. Google does the opposite. This has helped Google become the dominant player.

[FragglePete]

Just implemented this today; been meaning to do it for ages and the above files worked a charm.

Cheers

Pete

[djansen1987]

how can i use this with server 2003, i open the adml in 2003. Hope you can help me.

[ianh64]

I want to set this up. Tried and failed just before xmas. Where do I get the GUID's from? Do I grab them from a registry on a machine with the search engines already setup? Also, the instructions were for IE7 - presumably its the same for IE8 and beyond - do I need to change anything for these?

Wish to setup some child friendly ones - yahooligans, ask jeeves for kits and kids click. Anymore suggestions anyone?

Also, can I deploy something automatically to set google safe search options on by default.

[anotherstupidregistration]

Hello! Since i had to make an account to download those ziped files, i figured i might as well comment.

I have modified them slightly and will reproduce them below for anyone wanting a non UK version of google. And also will make them not a register only download by just pasting them in.
Also it should be noted that these settings are in admin templates -> windows components -> internet explorer. You have to turn on both "add a specific list of search providers" and "populate list of search providers". It seems you do have to change both user and machine entries to get it working. Took me a while to fidn the damn things as i am not used to the XML layout vs ADM files. (hint the key names are in the ADML file)

ugg it seems i have to have one post in order to post "links" of which there are in the admx file. thanks for that board! admx file will follow in next message then

[anotherstupidregistration]

----searchproviders.ADMX

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<policyDefinitions xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" revision="1.0" schemaVersion="1.0" xmlns="http://www.microsoft.com/GroupPolicy/PolicyDefinitions">
  <policyNamespaces>
    <target prefix="search" namespace="Microsoft.Policies.search" />
    <using prefix="inetres" namespace="Microsoft.Policies.InternetExplorer" />
  </policyNamespaces>
  <resources minRequiredRevision="1.0" />
  <policies>
      <policy name="PopulateSearchProviderList_1" class="User" displayName="$(string.PopulateSearchProviderList)" explainText="$(string.IE_Explain_PopulateSearchProviderList)"  key="Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchScopes">
      <parentCategory ref="inetres:InternetExplorer" />
						<supportedOn ref="inetres:SUPPORTED_IE7Vista"/>
      <enabledList>
        <item key="Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchScopes" valueName="0">
            <value>
                <decimal value="0" />
            </value>
        </item>
        <item key="Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchScopes\{92BEC15C-8F8B-46A6-B9E6-77B67DC5DB41}" valueName="DisplayName">
            <value>
                <string>Google</string>
            </value>	
        </item>	
        <item key="Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchScopes\{92BEC15C-8F8B-46A6-B9E6-77B67DC5DB41}" valueName="URL">
            <value>
                <string>http://www.google.com/search?q={searchTerms}</string>
            </value>
        </item>
      </enabledList>
      </policy>
      <policy name="PopulateSearchProviderList_2" class="Machine" displayName="$(string.PopulateSearchProviderList)" explainText="$(string.IE_Explain_PopulateSearchProviderList)" key="Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchScopes">
	<parentCategory ref="inetres:InternetExplorer" /><supportedOn ref="inetres:SUPPORTED_IE7Vista"/>
      <enabledList>
        <item key="Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchScopes" valueName="0">
            <value>
                <decimal value="0" />
            </value>
        </item>
        <item key="Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchScopes\{92BEC15C-8F8B-46A6-B9E6-77B67DC5DB41}" valueName="DisplayName">
            <value>
                <string>Google</string>
            </value>	
        </item>	
        <item key="Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchScopes\{92BEC15C-8F8B-46A6-B9E6-77B67DC5DB41}" valueName="URL">
            <value>
                <string>http://www.google.com/search?q={searchTerms}</string>
            </value>
        </item>
      </enabledList>
      </policy>
  </policies>
</policyDefinitions>

---- searchproviders.ADML

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<policyDefinitionResources xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" revision="1.0" schemaVersion="1.0" xmlns="http://www.microsoft.com/GroupPolicy/PolicyDefinitions">
  <displayName>Google Search</displayName>
  <description>Allow searching using Google</description>
  <resources>
    <stringTable>
      <string id="PopulateSearchProviderList">Populate List of search providers</string>
      <string id="IE_Explain_PopulateSearchProviderList">This policy setting will let you populate a list of search providers that will be displayed in Internet Explorer's search box.

If you enable this policy setting and if the "Restrict search providers to a specific list of search providers" Group Policy setting is enabled, this list will be the only list that appears in the Internet Explorer drop-down list. If the "Add a specific list of search providers to the user's search provider list" Group Policy setting is enabled, this list will be added to the user's list of search providers.

If you disable this policy setting or do not configure it, users will have complete freedom to create their own search provider list.</string>
    </stringTable>
  </resources>
</policyDefinitionResources>