Tag: Computer Configuration

This policy setting limits the amount of disk space that can be used to store offline files. This includes the space used by automatically cached files and files that are specifically made available offline. Files can be automatically cached if the user accesses a file on an automatic caching network share. This setting also disables the ability to adjust through the Offline Files control panel applet the disk space limits on the Offline Files cache. This prevents users from trying to change the option while a policy setting controls it. If you enable this policy setting you can specify the disk space limit (in megabytes) for offline files and also specify how much of that disk space can be used by automatically cached files. If you disable this policy setting the system limits the space that offline files occupy to 25 percent of the total space on the drive where the Offline Files cache is located. The limit for automatically cached files is 100 percent of the total disk space limit. If you do not configure this policy setting the system limits the space that offline files occupy to 25 percent of the total space on the drive where the Offline Files cache is located. The limit for automatically cached files is 100 percent of the total disk space limit. However the users can change these values using the Offline Files control applet. If you enable this setting and specify a total size limit greater than the size of the drive hosting the Offline Files cache and that drive is the system drive the total size limit is automatically adjusted downward to 75 percent of the size of the drive. If the cache is located on a drive other than the system drive the limit is automatically adjusted downward to 100 percent of the size of the drive. If you enable this setting and specify a total size limit less than the amount of space currently used by the Offline Files cache the total size limit is automatically adjusted upward to the amount of space currently used by offline files. The cache is then considered full. If you enable this setting and specify an auto-cached space limit greater than the total size limit the auto-cached limit is automatically adjusted downward to equal the total size limit. This setting replaces the Default Cache Size setting used by pre-Windows Vista systems.

This policy setting controls the network latency and throughput thresholds that will cause a client computers to transition files and folders that are already available offline to the slow-link mode so that the user’s access to this data is not degraded due to network slowness. When Offline Files is operating in the slow-link mode all network file requests are satisfied from the Offline Files cache. This is similar to a user working offline. If you enable this policy setting Offline Files uses the slow-link mode if the network throughput between the client and the server is below (slower than) the Throughput threshold parameter or if the round-trip network latency is above (slower than) the Latency threshold parameter. You can configure the slow-link mode by specifying threshold values for Throughput (in bits per second) and/or Latency (in milliseconds) for specific UNC paths. We recommend that you always specify a value for Latency since the round-trip network latency detection is faster. You can use wildcard characters (*) for specifying UNC paths. If you do not specify a Latency or Throughput value computers running Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008 will not use the slow-link mode. If you do not configure this policy setting computers running Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008 will not transition a shared folder to the slow-link mode. Computers running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 will use the default latency value of 80 milliseconds when transitioning a folder to the slow-link mode. Computers running Windows 8 or Windows Server 2012 will use the default latency value of 35 milliseconds when transitioning a folder to the slow-link mode. To avoid extra charges on cell phone or broadband plans it may be necessary to configure the latency threshold to be lower than the round-trip network latency. In Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008 once transitioned to slow-link mode users will continue to operate in slow-link mode until the user clicks the Work Online button on the toolbar in Windows Explorer. Data will only be synchronized to the server if the user manually initiates synchronization by using Sync Center. In Windows 7 Windows Server 2008 R2 Windows 8 or Windows Server 2012 when operating in slow-link mode Offline Files synchronizes the user’s files in the background at regular intervals or as configured by the “Configure Background Sync” policy. While in slow-link mode Windows periodically checks the connection to the folder and brings the folder back online if network speeds improve. In Windows 8 or Windows Server 2012 set the Latency threshold to 1ms to keep users always working offline in slow-link mode. If you disable this policy setting computers will not use the slow-link mode.

This policy setting allows you to turn on economical application of administratively assigned Offline Files. If you enable or do not configure this policy setting only new files and folders in administratively assigned folders are synchronized at logon. Files and folders that are already available offline are skipped and are synchronized later. If you disable this policy setting all administratively assigned folders are synchronized at logon.