My network's not listening to me!

[BatchFile]

This nearly went behind the red door as it's driving me nuts, but I decided to put it here so that I can thank anyone kind enough to help properly.

<rant>
Ok, breathe....

What do I need to do, in group policy, to finally turn off ALL offline files and synchronisation EVERYWHERE?!

If a network connection's not available, for whatever reason, I want the user to get a message saying that something's gone wrong, like in the good old days, so they know they need to do something, rather than windows (XP and Vista) pretending to have saved it ok before losing the work when the user's roaming profile doesn't save properly either!

I've attached a screenshot of the GPO concerned - can someone please tell me why the i'm still seeing little "synchronisation" icons all over the place, it's supposed to be turned off for sake!

</rant>

<cough

any help greatly appreciated, many thanks

[BatchFile]

Sorry I should have said it's "vanilla" Server 2003 and XP SP2/3 and Vista workstations

[jamesb]

When did you set this policy? Might be worth finding one of the computers that's still synchronising and running gpupdate /force just to make sure its actually getting the latest version.

[joe90bass]

Have you checked that the shares it's synchronising are still not set to make available offline?

[krisd32]

Create a new policy for computers rather than users. administrative templates -----> network / offline files. theres a few different settings in there for this. including enable / disable offline files. give it whirl.

Cheers

[BatchFile]

Thanks both

When did you set this policy? Might be worth finding one of the computers that's still synchronising and running gpupdate /force just to make sure its actually getting the latest version.

It's been there a good while, like at least a few months. I did just gpupdate /force, just in case, but no cigar

Have you checked that the shares it's synchronising are still not set to make available offline?

You mean in the "caching" button? I Just checked that and one of them was set to be available offline, so I've fixed it (and logged out and in again) and the little "sync" arrows are still there I just want to turn it off, everywhere, forever!

[treetops]

If you have a few servers, is FRS replicating the group policy everywhere properly?

[BatchFile]

Create a new policy for computers rather than users. administrative templates -----> network / offline files. theres a few different settings in there for this. including enable / disable offline files. give it whirl.

Cheers

I think you may have hit the nail on the head there - just testing now

If you have a few servers, is FRS replicating the group policy everywhere properly?

That's a damn good point too, the backup server can be a bit slow witted - It has definately updated since the policy was written originally but I'll make sure my tweaks this morning have replicated

[BatchFile]

Quote:
Originally Posted by krisd32
Create a new policy for computers rather than users. administrative templates -----> network / offline files. theres a few different settings in there for this. including enable / disable offline files. give it whirl.

Cheers

I think you may have hit the nail on the head there - just testing now

Almost that's spot on for the XP machines... now is anyone going to tell me why it doesn't work for Vista??

Quote:
Originally Posted by treetops
If you have a few servers, is FRS replicating the group policy everywhere properly?

That's a damn good point too, the backup server can be a bit slow witted - It has definately updated since the policy was written originally but I'll make sure my tweaks this morning have replicated

On this occasion, I can confirm that FRS does appear to be working correctly. But good call!

[treetops]

I dont have a lot of experience with vista but you may need to get hold of the vista adm template.

[BatchFile]

I was afraid it might come to that

<Rolls up sleeves and snaps on rubber gloves

[mrbios]

Have you tried running RSOP against the offending machines and checking they are actually picking up your policys?

[Michael]

You can also disable Offline Files under Computer Configuration for 2003/XP clients. For your Vista SP1 clients, you'll need to download RSAT (Remote Server Administration Tools). You'll then be able to specify policies from a Vista workstation.

You're probably wondering, why can't you do this on the server? For this, you would need Windows Server 2008. 2000/XP/2003 use ADM templates, whereas Vista/2008 use ADMX templates. However 2008 Server does still 'process' ADM templates for 2000/XP workstations if that makes sense!?

[BatchFile]

Thankyou all, I think it's fixed now

I did need the admx files and to install GPMC.msc on a vista PC (guide here: Vista in a W2k3 Domain)

but as SP1 took away the admin tools, I also needed to install them again first (Installing GPMC on Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista Service Pack 1 | Vista Home). Once that was done, I ran GPMC.msc and found reasons for all sorts of annoyances that had been surfacing on the Vista workstations, and certainly stopped the troubles offline files were causing.

Now that's what I call a day's work, no more silly green circles with arrows in them