Use Group Policy to specify where users can save Office 2010 files

 

Applies to: Office 2010

Topic Last Modified: 2011-09-29

You can use Group Policy to specify and enforce the locations (or folders) where users can save Microsoft Office 2010 files. This article describes how to configure Group Policy settings to achieve this task, and then lists the corresponding values that are set in the registry on user computers.

Specify and enforce locations where users can save Office 2010 files

To specify and enforce the locations through the Group Policy Management Console, you must configure both the Activate Restricted Browsing and Approve Locations policy settings. You enable the Activate Restricted Browsing policy setting to restrict the locations available to users in the Save As dialog box, and then enable the Approve Locations policy setting to specify the restricted locations, such as c:\Windows or \\server\share. The subfolders of the locations that you specify will also be available to users in the Save As dialog box.

Note

You perform the following procedure on a domain Group Policy object (GPO) that contains the set of users to which you want these configurations to apply.
You must have Edit permission for the GPO. For more information, see the Changing how Group Policy processes GPOs section in the Group Policy overview for Office 2010.
To use the policy settings as explained in this article, you must install the Office 2010 Administrative Template files (ADM, ADMX, ADML) and Office Customization Tool (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=189316) update.

To specify and enforce locations in the Save As dialog box

1. Open the Group Policy Management Console (GPMC). Click Start, click Control Panel, click Administrative Tools, and then click Group Policy Management.

2. In the console tree, double-click Group Policy Objects in the forest and domain that contain the Group Policy object (GPO) that you want to edit. This is located in Forest name, Domains, Domain name, Group Policy Objects.

3. Right-click the GPO that you want to change and then click Edit.

4. In the tree view, expand User Configuration, expand Administrative Templates, expand Microsoft Office 2010, expand File Open/Save dialog box, and in the reading pane click Restricted Browsing.

5. In the details pane, double-click Activate Restricted Browsing.

6. On the Setting tab, select Enabled, and then click OK.

7. Double-click Approve Locations.

8. On the Setting tab, select Enabled, and then click Show.

9. In the Show Contents dialog box, in the Value name column, type the name of the location that you want to add to the Save As dialog box.

10. Repeat the previous step to add more locations, as needed.

11. After you add all the approved locations, click OK to exit the Show Contents dialog box.

Important

These settings will affect the locations displayed on the My Places bar in the Save As dialog box. Therefore, we recommend that you add at least one approved location to the My Places bar by using the Places Bar Location [1-10] setting: In the tree view, click User Configuration, click Administrative Templates, click Microsoft Office 2010, double-click File Open/Save dialog box, and then click Places Bar Locations. If there are no approved locations in the My Places bar, users might be unable to open the Save As dialog box.

Registry settings

When you configure the Activate Restricted Browsing and Approve Locations policy settings, the following corresponding registry entries are configured on the user computers.

Note

As an alternative to using Group Policy, you can create a script to deploy these registry settings to user computers. For information about scripting, see Script Center (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=158045).

Registry key	Description	Values
HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Common\Open Find\RestrictedBrowse	This registry key stores the locations available to users in the Save As dialog box.	Name = name of the location Value = path of the approved location (subfolders are included)
HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Common\Open Find\RestrictedBrowse\OptIn	This registry specified the applications in the Office 2010 to which the Restricted Browsing setting applies.	Name = [Office 2010 application]. This is a DWORD (32-bit) value key that is enabled when set to 1. Valid entries are as follows: Microsoft Access Microsoft Excel Microsoft SharePoint Designer Microsoft InfoPath Microsoft OneNote Microsoft Outlook Microsoft PowerPoint Microsoft Project Microsoft Publisher Microsoft Visio Microsoft Word

See Also

Concepts

Use Group Policy to enforce Office 2010 settings