Shortcut for website using non-default browser

group-policyshortcut

I am working on a GPO to push a desktop shortcut to a website using IE (which is not the default browser) out to my Windows 7 Pro machines. All machines are x64. Not sure why this isn't working:

  • Action: Update (tried Create too, but that didn't help)
  • Name: BackOffice
  • Target Type: File System
  • Object Location: Desktop
  • Target path: "%programfiles(x86)%\internet explorer\iexplore.exe" https:\xxxx (with the real address of course)
  • Arguments: (tried putting the URL here instead of Target path, but that didn't help)
  • Start in: %programfiles(x86)%\internet explorer\ (tried blank too, but that didn't work)
  • Shortcut key: none
  • Run: Normal window
  • Comment:
  • Icon file path: UNC to an icon file here (checked that the user can pull it up via UNC)
  • Icon index: 0

But we keep getting an event log: 4098 – The user 'Back Office' preference item in the policy POLICYName did not apply because it failed with error code XXXX. The system cannot find the file specified. This error was suppressed.

I can copy the target path out of the policy and paste it into Run on the target workstation and it works perfectly.

Best Answer

Try the following below. I've just tested it and works fine.

  • Action: Create
  • Name: BackOffice
  • Target Type: File System Object
  • Location: Desktop
  • Target Path: %PROGRAMFILES(x86)%\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe
  • Arguements: http://www.google.com
  • Start In: (BLANK)
  • Shortcut Key: None
  • Run: Normal Window
  • Comment: N/A
  • Icon file path:
  • Icon Index:

I have just tried various different ways of UNC path for the icon file but none of them appear to work including trying \domain.local\sysvol path. I created a GPO to copy the icon from a shared location to a location on the local machine then pointed the Shortcut Group Policy to the Icon on the local machine and it works fine!

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