Distributing Security Zone Settings Using Group Policy

Once you have configured Security Zone to meet security requirements, you may need to distribute settings to workstations throughout a network. While you can use the Internet Explorer Administration Kit’s Profile Manager to do the job, you can avoid having to install additional software if you use the method provided by the Group Policy editor.

Deploying security zone settings using group policy is a two-step procedure that involves exporting the Security Zone settings as an INS configuration file and then configuring your Windows Vista clients to use the Automatic Browser Configuration feature to import those settings. The beauty of this distribution method is that you can regularly update the Security Zone settings and then easily distribute the updates.

To begin, launch the Group Policy editor by typing group policy in the Search field on the Start Menu and press Enter. When you see the Group Policy editor window, go to the tree view and open the following branch: User Configuration | Windows Settings. Right-click on Internet Explorer Maintenance icon and select the Export Browser Settings command from the shortcut menu. When you see the Save .INS File And .CAB Files dialog box, type the full path and name of the .INS file and click OK. Once you save the INS file, copy it to the root directory of a local intranet server.

At this point, you’ll need to enable Automatic Browser Configuration on all of your Windows Vista clients. You can e-mail these instructions to your users or deploy them manually.

Launch the Group Policy editor by typing group policy in the Search field on the Start Menu. When you see the Group Policy editor window, go to the tree view and open the following branch: User Configuration | Windows Settings | Internet Explorer Maintenance | Connection. Double-click Automatic Browser Configuration. In the Automatic Browser Configuration dialog box, select both the Automatically Detect Configuration Settings and the Enable Automatic Configuration check boxes. Then, type the URL to the INS configuration file in the Auto-config URL (.INS File) text box.

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