Aaron Long: Blog Post: Internet Explorer 9(IE9) Group Policy Preferences (GPP)

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Blog Post: Internet Explorer 9(IE9) Group Policy Preferences (GPP)

Symptom:

Some customers reported GPP is not applying IE9, prior to Upgrading the browser to IE9.0 it was working OK with IE 8.0.

Enabled Logging for Group Policy Preferences and found the below:
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Non-Working Scenario :
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2011-03-29 09:56:37.131 [pid=0x3a0,tid=0xb18] {683F7AD7-E782-4232-8A6D-F22431F12DB5}
2011-03-29 09:56:37.147 [pid=0x3a0,tid=0xb18] Starting class <IE8> - Internet Explorer 8.
2011-03-29 09:56:37.147 [pid=0x3a0,tid=0xb18] Starting filter [AND FilterFile].
2011-03-29 09:56:37.147 [pid=0x3a0,tid=0xb18] Adding child elements to RSOP.
2011-03-29 09:56:37.147 [pid=0x3a0,tid=0xb18] Set user security context.
2011-03-29 09:56:37.147 [pid=0x3a0,tid=0xb18] C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe
2011-03-29 09:56:37.147 [pid=0x3a0,tid=0xb18] apmGetFileVersionEx
2011-03-29 09:56:37.147 [pid=0x3a0,tid=0xb18] apmCompareVersionTokens [SUCCEEDED(S_FALSE)]
2011-03-29 09:56:37.147 [pid=0x3a0,tid=0xb18] Set system security context.
2011-03-29 09:56:37.147 [pid=0x3a0,tid=0xb18] Failed hidden filter [FilterFile].
2011-03-29 09:56:37.163 [pid=0x3a0,tid=0xb18] Filters not passed.
2011-03-29 09:56:37.163 [pid=0x3a0,tid=0xb18] Completed class <IE8> - Internet Explorer 8.
2011-03-29 09:56:37.163 [pid=0x3a0,tid=0xb18] Completed class <InternetSettings>.
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When you try to edit a GPP Policy on the Domain Controller you only see an option for IE 5 / 6 / 7 and 8.

Cause:

Windows Server 2008 R2 GPP Internet Explorer preference items does not support IE 9. The problem is clear in the debug log as the filter did not pass. The problem is viewable from the XML file