[cifs-protocol] [REG:119031519752615] Group Policy GPE.ini file in sysvol

[Edgar Olougouna]

GPE.ini seems something related to GP local preferences. It may have been a desktop standard tool in Vista/2008 but I don’t see it in recent code branches. I don’t see any protocol impact. If you ever see it replicated in a GP folder, please don’t remove it just to avoid any dependency hiccup, just in case. 
Anyway, the standard/modern way is to use gPCUserExtensionNames, gPCMachineExtensionNames as documented in [MS-GPPREF].

Thanks,
Edgar

-----Original Message-----
From: Garming Sam <garming at catalyst.net.nz> 
Sent: Sunday, March 17, 2019 4:05 PM
To: Edgar Olougouna <edgaro at microsoft.com>
Cc: cifs-protocol at lists.samba.org; MSSolve Case Email <casemail at microsoft.com>
Subject: Re: [REG:119031519752615] Group Policy GPE.ini file in sysvol

Hi,

I suspect it is replicated via sysvol, but I am mostly interested in potential uses. What I am most interested in is if it was deleted (or missing), and what impacts that might have on the GP protocols. If it really was meant to act as gPCUserExtensionNames or gPCMachineExtensionNames which can allow or deny certain GPOs to be applied, does this file actually override this behaviour or is this file the only real control of that behaviour?

Cheers,

Garming

On 16/03/19 6:11 AM, Edgar Olougouna wrote:
> Good Day Garming,
> Thanks for providing more details on this. I will take a look. Is this file GPE.ini replicated via Sysvol or are you just seeing on a client and questioning any potential use? From another angle, is there any GP protocol sequence was impacted or you were unable to achieve?
>
> Thanks,
> Edgar
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bryan Burgin <bburgin at microsoft.com>
> Sent: Friday, March 15, 2019 12:42 AM
> To: Garming Sam <garming at catalyst.net.nz>
> Cc: cifs-protocol at lists.samba.org; MSSolve Case Email 
> <casemail at microsoft.com>
> Subject: [REG:119031519752615] Group Policy GPE.ini file in sysvol
>
> Hi Garming,
>
> Thank you for your question.  We created SR 119031519752615 to track this issue.  An engineer will contact you soon.
>
> Bryan
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Garming Sam <garming at catalyst.net.nz>
> Sent: Thursday, March 14, 2019 7:56 PM
> To: Interoperability Documentation Help <dochelp at microsoft.com>
> Cc: cifs-protocol at lists.samba.org
> Subject: Group Policy GPE.ini file in sysvol
>
> 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://nam06.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fsoci
> al.technet.microsoft.com%2FForums%2Flync%2Fen-US%2F512c4e0f-4a47-4df6-
> 9030-08c19ba0761a%2Fwhy-some-gpo-has-adm-folder-some-has-group-policy-
> folder%3Fforum%3DwinserverGP&data=02%7C01%7Cedgaro%40microsoft.com
> %7C9fdeba22c8614d5d0ae008d6ab1c368b%7C72f988bf86f141af91ab2d7cd011db47
> %7C1%7C0%7C636884535020665191&sdata=WDYBOhqNEoDgEt%2FYnWNXXUDBCkMi
> 3fW75ODrDgwfD7o%3D&reserved=0
>
> 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
>
>
>