52 Microsoft Windows NT Server White Paper
each time the System Policy Editor starts.)
Configuring System Policies Based on
Geographic Location
You may choose to enforce certain environment settings based upon geo-
graphic site location or vicinity. At least two methods are available to do this.
• Generate a System Policy that contains settings for specific computers. In
each of the machine-specific settings, configure the Remote Update path
to a specific regional server that will be maintaining the regional System
Policy file. When the user logs on at the Windows NT-based workstation
for the first time, because the default mode is Automatic, the workstation
will check the validating domain controller for a policy file. The policy file it
finds will point the policy update configuration to another server. Note,
however, that this does not work for the first logon. When the user next
logs on, Windows NT checks the remote path and continues to use that
path until the System Policy file on the remote server directs otherwise.
• Manually configure each of the workstations in a given region or site to
use a remote update path, and change the remote update mode from the
default of Automatic to Manual.
Clearing the Documents Available List
As an alternative to removing the Documents option from the Start menu, you
can set and clear the documents available by clearing the MRUList value in
the registry. Use this registry key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER
\Software
\Microsoft
\Windows
\CurrentVersion
\Explorer
\RecentDocs
Value: MRUList
Note that you should not delete the value; instead, replace MRUList with a
blank string.
Building Fault Tolerance for Custom Shared Folders
If you want to create a user environment that includes a Custom Shared Pro-
grams Folder and a Custom Shared Desktop, you need to place the source
folders for these shared items on a central server for all users to access. How-
ever, this involves some degree of risk if the server is unavailable. If that
occurs, the user’s Programs menu and desktop would not contain the appro-
priate folders, shortcuts, and files.
To build fault tolerance into this configuration, you can take advantage of
the distributed file system (Dfs) available for the Windows NT Server 4.0 oper-
ating system platform. Dfs, which runs as a service, can provide a share that
