[cifs-protocol] Group Policy GPE.ini file in sysvol

[Garming Sam]

Hi,

It recently came to my attention that some preferences set by the Group
Policy editor on Windows create a 'GPE.ini' file as a side-effect. One
such example is the definition of shortcuts within group policy which is
described in [MS-GPPREF].

2.2.1 Preferences Policy Message Syntax

Shortcuts -> Shortcuts\Shortcuts.xml

As far as I can tell, GPE.ini isn't part of the files described by the
protocol documents ([MS-GPOD] and those referenced by it). The function
of the GPE.ini seems to be similar to (or perhaps even a duplication of)
the LDAP attribute gPCUserExtensionNames and gPCMachineExtensionNames
which are used to describe which GPO extensions are in use.

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/lync/en-US/512c4e0f-4a47-4df6-9030-08c19ba0761a/why-some-gpo-has-adm-folder-some-has-group-policy-folder?forum=winserverGP

The comment made here by Martin Binder seems to be the most (useful)
information available about this. Apart from confirming that this file
should or shouldn't be documented, it would be nice to have some
corroboration of at least some portion of the commenter's conclusions.
Despite being created additionally, I'm particularly interested in
whether or not this file is actually required by (modern) GP clients (if
so, perhaps it does need to be documented).


Cheers,

Garming