Microsoft OneDrive 365

[DJ-1701]

As we have been looking at using OneDrive instead of a network share for storing student documents. I thought I would share our settings.

 

OneDrive Machine and User Policies.zip

 

There are some items I would address though.

 

• Yes, I know OneDrive Known Folders are a thing... but basically... they are naff... you have got to allow users to be able to change where the folders are redirected to if you have originally denied them access to this, they only set redirection for Desktop, Documents and Pictures... and they don't always seem to be able to do that, after an attempt, which might not be successful to redirect the locations, it is marked in the registry as done. In testing it has been a far greater success rate doing it yourself with folder redirection.
   
   
  
• Yes, I know there is a redirect for the local profile path, or you could type %UserProfile%... but unfortunately any path you put under the local profile path will be ignored by Group Policy and the folders will just be redirected to %UserProfile%\Documents instead of your chosen path of %UserProfile%\OneDrive - School\Documents. This same behaviour happens if you type in this path or select the local profile and is why a variable for OneDrive is used.
   
   
  
• Do not prevent access to C Drive in explorer. This is needed for OneDrive access to function.
   
   
  
• If you don't have older versions of OneDrive installed (aka Groove and the old OneDrive for Business) you can get away with using %OneDrive% instead of adding the new %OneDriveSync% variable, but speaking with @Arcolite, the built in %OneDrive% variable seems a bit inconsistent depending when the client logs in, so you might want to use the custom variable anyway.
   
   
  
• If you are having issues with the client not syncing, ensure you don't have some really old policies setup for 'SkyDrive' to be disabled, I have seen them interfere in previous versions.
   
   
  
• A few of our schools have discovered that our OneDrive clients don't seem to want to automatically update during testing. Maybe yours won't have an issue, maybe Microsoft will or have fixed it in later releases, but just in case... as we use the All Users installation of OneDrive, I have create a bunch of scripts that once we find there is an update we need to deploy, we can set it up to deploy this at the logon screen and try and prevent the user from logging in until it's installed. The installer is set to remove all old versions of OneDrive and install the latest one from the OneDriveSetup.exe you provide. These can be found here: https://github.com/DJ-1701/LogonScreenInstaller
  

Edited July 17, 2020 by DJ-1701
Buggy old upload issue, where it would work for the user, possibly the admin, but not other members. Reuploaded.

[Sibrows]

Attachment doesn’t work?

[DJ-1701]

Attachment doesn’t work?

 

Thanks for letting me know, it should work now, appears to be the old attachment issue where it works perfectly for the poster, admins/mods usually report it works for them, but for the members, nada, so reuploaded.

[DJ-1701]

If anyone who has a mail relay wants a script they can schedule to find out if there has been a new general release in the last two days, here you go...

 

# Mail relay settings (The local server configured to send an e-mail).

$SMTPSERVER = "IP4AddressOrDNSName"

$MAILFROM = "Account Name Here "

$MAILTO = "[email protected]"



$OneDriveWebpage = Invoke-WebRequest https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/onedrive-release-notes-845dcf18-f921-435e-bf28-4e24b95e5fc0

$StrangeSpace = [char] 0x00A0

$WebpageContent = $OneDriveWebpage.Content -replace $StrangeSpace, " "

If ($WebpageContent -match "Download OneDrive for Windows - Version \d{1,5}.\d{1,5}.\d{1,5}.\d{1,5} [(]" + (Get-Date).AddMonths(0).AddDays(0).tostring(“MMMM dd, yyyy"))`

   -or ($WebpageContent -match "Download OneDrive for Windows - Version \d{1,5}.\d{1,5}.\d{1,5}.\d{1,5} [(]" + (Get-Date).AddMonths(0).AddDays(-1).tostring(“MMMM dd, yyyy"))

{

    Send-MailMessage -To "$MAILTO" -From "$MAILFROM" -Subject "Possible OneDrive Update Available" -Body "Please check https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/onedrive-release-notes-845dcf18-f921-435e-bf28-4e24b95e5fc0 to see if OneDrive updates are available." -SmtpServer "$SMTPSERVER"

}

[/Code]
 

Script also uploaded to GitHub, if I make any future amendments I will make them there. https://github.com/DJ-1701/Update-Checker-for-OneDrive

Edited July 24, 2020 by DJ-1701

[supportman]

@DJ-1701 thanks for this just what I needed.

 

Can you explain some of the registry hacks in those GP settings?

 

Also am I right in thinking students have access to the C: drive in your schools? How does that work out?

[Boredguy]

Students still have C: hidden, but you can not have prevent access.

 

So far the students have not been able to do anything untoward on stations

[DJ-1701]

@DJ-1701 thanks for this just what I needed.

 

Can you explain some of the registry hacks in those GP settings?

 

Sure

 

EnableADAL - Ensures that Modern authentication is attempted first, authenticating with the AD account. If the server refuses a modern authentication connection, then basic authentication is used.

 

ClientEverSignedIn, SilentBusinessConfigCompleted, FirstRunSignInOrigin and FirstRun - Are set to silently sign in to OneDrive and subsequent logins.

 

OneDrive - Launches the OneDrive client on login for the user.

 

UserEmail - Is used to specify the OneDrive account of the user.