Group Policy setting “Code Word” for System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008 is not correctly applied to Windows Mobile 6.1 mobile devices when the policy is Disabled

imageWhen you disable the Group Policy setting Code Word by using Microsoft System Center Mobile Device Manager (MDM) 2008 Group Policy management functionality, some Windows Mobile 6.1 mobile devices may continue to use the previously set code word.

This group policy setting affects this Windows Mobile registry key when applied to the device:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Comm\Security\LASSD\CodeWord

When this policy is set to Enable the Code Word value is set in this registry key, however when this policy is set to Disable the registry key is deleted. When the registry key is not found, the Windows Mobile device continues to use whatever code word was set previously.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section. This problem has not been corrected at the time of publication of this article.

The only workaround at this time is to not disable the policy. Using the Group Policy Management Console, rather than set the policy to Disable, always set it to Enable and specify your desired code word.

Note: Special thanks to our very own Dave Hattaway for contributing the preceding information.

J.C. Hornbeck | Manageability Knowledge Engineer