windows 2003 internet explorer

[amoss24]

in w2k3 internet explorer is there a way to reduce the internet seruity setting to medium and the trusted sites setting to medium for standard users.

I can to this as administrator fine no problems but the settings do not propergate to standard users and standard users dont have the option to change these.

can these settings be altered by the administrator for all users that log on to the server and override any settings in there profile.

[jpatto]

I think you have to uninstall internet security from Add/Remove programs first

[amoss24]

Sortted uninstalled the enhanced security works ok now

[Professor Frink]

FYI -- if you add this to your winnt.sif, the enhanced security will never be installed:

[Components]
    IEHardenAdmin=Off
    IEHardenUser=Off

[tguy]

You can customize the Internet Explorer settings using the Internet Explorer Administration Kit, IEAK6SP1.EXE from Microsoft.

There are numerous options for custom configurations available in there. Check it out.

[Professor Frink]

You can customize the Internet Explorer settings using the Internet Explorer Administration Kit, IEAK6SP1.EXE from Microsoft.

Do you do it this way for XP and/or 2003? Since they both have IE6 SP1 standard, I always had a bad feeling about using the IE Admin Kit and essentially doing a re-installation of IE.

Maybe it works fine, I don't really know. But ever since XP, I've stuck with just using registry tweaks.

[tguy]

@Professor Frink,

Yes I have used the IEAK for XP, Windows 2000 Pro/Server/Adv. Server, Windows Server 2003 Web/Standard/Enterprise. It works fine with all of them. The thing with registry tweaks is that you have to apply them to each individual machine.

When you have 50-100 servers to deploy having one customized build to deploy works much better. Plus when using GPO's you can tweak things individually as needed.

Don't get me wrong, registry tweaks do have their place, I use them to disable the Internet Connection Wizard, and to remove OE.

Play around with the IEAK if you get some time, see if it works for you. Testing is always key.

[Professor Frink]

Don't get me wrong -- I've used the IEAK and I think it's fantastic. It used to be an integral part of my 2000 install, before I changed to XP.

Like I said, I just felt weird using it where IE6 SP1 already existed.

[tguy]

@Professor Frink,

No problem, you can still use it when IE is already installed and patch to enable/disable features and tweak security settings. I use it to customize the build with Title Bar names, logos, customize components, and to tweak security.