Restrict user file saving in Desktop and where to save ?

Question

Restrict user file saving in Desktop and where to save ?

jose jesuratnam 10

Dear Team,

Good Day..!

I want to set up Desktop policy additional configurations in server.

Current organisation configuration Existing of have only one Drive that is "C". (Eg. When a new user login in windows by default "c" will be there. Another drive from server automatically comes to the user profile)

How user can Restrict files not to be saved in desktop.
If we Enable Desktop policy >Hide and disable all items on the Desktop.
How can user save files and if the server Profile Drive during offline?

Please suggest the ideas if any external free software can be used during offline or best possible ways.

It would be great thankful to you. if come with new ideas and inputs.

Thanks & Regards,

Jose

2 answers

Your answer

Answer 1

Hello

Thank you for your question and reaching out. I can understand you are having query\issues related to prevent users to save files on Desktop.

You can certainly achieve using Group policy

Open GPMC.msc go to Computer Configuration > Policy > Windows Settings > Security Settings > File System
Right click and add %userprofile%\Desktop .or the different folders that you want to restrict access to.
Specify the rights for the specified folder(s) for users or user groups.

Reference :

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/ie/en-US/d2ccb106-fd26-4d99-84b9-a4967bd33a7e/restrict-domain-users-to-save-files-on-local-computer?forum=winserverGP

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/5dd48710-a7c6-4385-823c-b756883ce0a7/prevent-users-from-saving-to-the-pc-my-desktop-my-documents-and-so-on?forum=winserverGP

--If the reply is helpful, please Upvote and Accept as answer--

Answer 2

Armin Makovec 0

It doesn't work, at least not for users' folders. The error I get by doing this is:

----Configure File Security...
	Configure c:\test.
	Configure c:\windows\system32\config\systemprofile\desktop.
Warning 2: The system cannot find the file specified.
 	Error setting security on c:\windows\system32\config\systemprofile\desktop.

	File Security configuration was completed successfully.

SoAny help appreciated.

Brandon Evans 0 Reputation points

2023-11-13T22:20:34.3+00:00

Did you ever find an answer to this? I am having the exact same problem. I think the issue is that the policy setting is a Computer Setting, and so it does not run in the user context. Thus %userprofile% is resolved as "c:\windows\system32\config\systemprofile"

I can't see how you could ever use a path in this policy setting to specify any user profile folders.
Armin Makovec 0 Reputation points

2023-11-14T21:28:55.95+00:00
You arrived at the same conclusion I did.

Based on my finding, you have 2 options.

You either redirect the folder to another (shared) folder which is completely locked for normal users (i.e. group shared desktop where only admins can put shortcuts) or

what I finally did in my case, by using the File Server Resource Manager on my File Server to restrict users from saving anything other than shortcuts (you could also limit them to anything else, but by limiting them to shortcuts I can now force them to better organize stuff while still having the ability to actually use the desktop for the convenience it brings when having shortcuts to regularly needed giles/subfolders:

Share via

Restrict user file saving in Desktop and where to save ?

2 answers

Your answer