Force default web browser change via security policy for Adobe 9.3

[acrobson]

Evening all,

 

Is there a way to force the default browser with a local security policy to Internet Explorer? under 'default browser' under Control Panel > Add or remove programs > Set Program Access and Defaults > Custom > Choose a default web browser.

 

The reason being within the last 2 weeks, I suspect following an Adobe update, a number of machines which are controlled by local security policies are are failing to allow Adobe Reader to be used displaying -

 

'This operation has been cancelled due to restrictions in affect on this computer. Please contact your computer administrator'

 

At first, I suspected this was to do with the security settings in Adobe Reader 9.3 and thus disabled them, however the problem persisted. On disabling the local security policy completely, the problem goes away, so clearly, it is something to do with the local security policy.

 

I have also added all additional .exe files to the allowed executables rule within the local group policy as well as adding a wildcard for all executables to run and again, this has failed to resolve the problem.

 

An update was available for 9.3.2 whilst I was working on the machines and once this was applied, it is now possible to open Adobe PDF files and as appose to just getting

 

'This operation has been cancelled due to restrictions in affect on this computer. Please contact your computer administrator'

 

straight away. it does actually let you view the document with Adobe Reader, then exactly 17 seconds later, the restriction message appears and when you click 'OK' it goes but lets you continue to view the documents.

 

and we have found, by changing the default browser to IE within 'Set program access and defaults' the error is not displayed with the security policy in place, however, once the PC is restarted, the default browser is changed back to 'default' or current' as appose to IE.

 

The clients are Windows XP SP3

 

Cheers, AC

[Michael]

It does appear to be policy related, simply because the problem returns after a reboot.

 

Within User Config > Admin Templates > Windows Components > Internet Explorer - Disable changing default browser check - Enabled. IE will check and present the user a message to set IE as the default, if it isn't the default everytime.

[acrobson]

It does appear to be policy related, simply because the problem returns after a reboot.

 

Within User Config > Admin Templates > Windows Components > Internet Explorer - Disable changing default browser check - Enabled. IE will check and present the user a message to set IE as the default, if it isn't the default everytime.

 

Yeah, thanks for that. I am convinced it is GPO related, as as soon as the GPO is disabled, it works fine, even without a reboot. The thing which is troubling me is how it has just started happening. I will try 'Disable changing default browser check' tomorrow, however I would like to find a solution that won't require any user interaction at all and just work as it used two, prior to the last two weeks. I.E, user clicks on a PDF docuement on a website and it just opens, with out any restrictions error.

 

I'd be interested to know if anyone else has had similar issues with regards to Adobe Reader 9 updates recently.