Group Policy to run IE at logon not working

group-policywindows-server-2003

I am trying to make it so that Internet Explorer starts with my companies Intranet page every time a user logs on to a Terminal Server, but I can't get it to work.

I am using Windows Server 2003 and the 'Run these programs at user logon' key and adding the following command, but it appears that it is being ignored by the GP (not listed in gpresult \v at all).

"c:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe"
"c:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" http://dynedrewnett
iexplore http://dynedrewnett

I also have checked the Registry for the key that MS say should contain the prograns to run at logon, but the key does not exist –

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\Explorer\Run

Does anybody know why this is not working? Thanks.

Best Answer

Although it could be something else since you mention that gpresult doesn't show the setting, have a look at the below.

From here

Unless the file is located in the %Systemroot% directory, you must specify the fully qualified path to the file.

Try supplying the full path to iexplore.exe

Other things to check:

  • Ensure that the GPO is applied to an OU that contains your user accounts, or use Loopback Policy processing.
  • If you only recently made the change, ensure that the policy has been updated on the server you're testing on using gpupdate