Category: At least Windows XP Professional with SP2

This policy setting allows you to configure the amount of functionality that the shell protocol can have. When using the full functionality of this protocol applications can open folders and launch files. The protected mode reduces the functionality of this protocol allowing applications to only open a limited set of folders. Applications are not able to open files with this protocol when it is in the protected mode. It is recommended to leave this protocol in the protected mode to increase the security of Windows. If you enable this policy setting the protocol is fully enabled allowing the opening of folders and files. If you disable this policy setting the protocol is in the protected mode allowing applications to only open a limited set of folders. If you do not configure this policy setting the protocol is in the protected mode allowing applications to only open a limited set of folders.

This policy setting controls how the RPC server runtime handles unauthenticated RPC clients connecting to RPC servers. This policy setting impacts all RPC applications. In a domain environment this policy setting should be used with caution as it can impact a wide range of functionality including group policy processing itself. Reverting a change to this policy setting can require manual intervention on each affected machine. This policy setting should never be applied to a domain controller. If you disable this policy setting the RPC server runtime uses the value of “Authenticated” on Windows Client and the value of “None” on Windows Server versions that support this policy setting. If you do not configure this policy setting it remains disabled. The RPC server runtime will behave as though it was enabled with the value of “Authenticated” used for Windows Client and the value of “None” used for Server SKUs that support this policy setting. If you enable this policy setting it directs the RPC server runtime to restrict unauthenticated RPC clients connecting to RPC servers running on a machine. A client will be considered an authenticated client if it uses a named pipe to communicate with the server or if it uses RPC Security. RPC Interfaces that have specifically requested to be accessible by unauthenticated clients may be exempt from this restriction depending on the selected value for this policy setting. — “None” allows all RPC clients to connect to RPC Servers running on the machine on which the policy setting is applied. — “Authenticated” allows only authenticated RPC Clients (per the definition above) to connect to RPC Servers running on the machine on which the policy setting is applied. Exemptions are granted to interfaces that have requested them. — “Authenticated without exceptions” allows only authenticated RPC Clients (per the definition above) to connect to RPC Servers running on the machine on which the policy setting is applied. No exceptions are allowed. Note: This policy setting will not be applied until the system is rebooted.

This policy setting controls whether RPC clients authenticate with the Endpoint Mapper Service when the call they are making contains authentication information. The Endpoint Mapper Service on computers running Windows NT4 (all service packs) cannot process authentication information supplied in this manner. If you disable this policy setting RPC clients will not authenticate to the Endpoint Mapper Service but they will be able to communicate with the Endpoint Mapper Service on Windows NT4 Server. If you enable this policy setting RPC clients will authenticate to the Endpoint Mapper Service for calls that contain authentication information. Clients making such calls will not be able to communicate with the Windows NT4 Server Endpoint Mapper Service. If you do not configure this policy setting it remains disabled. RPC clients will not authenticate to the Endpoint Mapper Service but they will be able to communicate with the Windows NT4 Server Endpoint Mapper Service. Note: This policy will not be applied until the system is rebooted.

This setting sets the seed server for the site local cloud to a specified node in the enterprise. The Peer Name Resolution Protocol (PNRP) allows for distributed resolution of a name to an IPV6 address and port number. The protocol in some cases requires a seed server from which to get bootstrapped. This setting allows for setting the seed server to a specified node in an enterprise. To use this setting click Enable and then enter a semicolon-delimited list of DNS names or IPV6 addresses in the available field. If you enable this setting and you don’t enter any address no seed server will be used. If this setting is not configured the protocol will revert to using a public registry key to determine the seed server to bootstrap from.

This policy setting limits a node to resolving but not publishing names in a specific Peer Name Resolution Protocol (PNRP) cloud. This policy setting forces computers to act as clients in peer-to-peer (P2P) scenarios. For example a client computer can detect other computers to initiate chat sessions but other computers cannot detect that client and initiate sessions with it. If you enable this policy setting this computer cannot register PNRP names and cannot help other computers perform PNRP lookups. If you disable or do not configure this policy setting this computer can publish PNRP names and help other computers perform PNRP lookups.

This policy setting enables or disables PNRP cloud creation. PNRP is a distributed name resolution protocol allowing Internet hosts to publish peer names with a corresponding Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) address. Other hosts can then resolve the name retrieve the corresponding address and establish peer-to-peer (P2P) connections. The PNRP cloud is a group of connected PNRP nodes in which connections exist between peers so that a node in the PNRP cloud can resolve names published by other nodes. PNRP creates a global cloud if the computer has a global IPv6 address but creates a site-local cloud if the computer has a site-local address. If you enable this policy setting PNRP does not create a cloud and applications cannot use this cloud to publish or resolve names regardless of whether the computer has an IPv6 address that matches the cloud scope. If you disable or do not configure this policy setting all PNRP clouds are turned on by default and PNRP creates a cloud if the computer has an IPv6 address compatible with the cloud’s scope.

This setting disables PNRP protocol from advertising the computer or from searching other computers on the local subnet in the site local cloud. The Peer Name Resolution Protocol (PNRP) allows for distributed resolution of a name to an IPV6 address and port number. One of the ways in which PNRP bootstraps itself is by using multicast on the same subnet. That is PNRP publishes itself on the local subnet so that other computers can find it when needed. If you enable this setting PNRP will not use multicast for bootstrapping. Specifying this registry key will break scenarios where there is no seed server for bootstrap (such as ad hoc networking scenarios). If you disable this setting PNRP will use multicast for bootstrapping on the same subnet. If this setting is not configured the protocol will revert to using a public registry key to determine whether it will publish the computer or will use multicast to search for other computers on the local subnet. The multicast protocol used for bootstrapping is SSDP (Simple Service Discovery Protocol). The SSDP service must be enabled (which it is by default) for this policy to have effect.

This setting sets the seed server for the link local cloud to a specified node in the enterprise. The Peer Name Resolution Protocol (PNRP) allows for distributed resolution of a name to an IPV6 address and port number. The protocol in some cases requires a seed server from which to get bootstrapped. This setting allows for setting the seed server to a specified node in an enterprise. To use this setting click Enable and then enter a semicolon-delimited list of IPV6 addresses in the available field. If you enable this setting and you don’t enter any address no seed server will be used. If this setting is not configured the protocol will revert to using a public registry key to determine the seed server to bootstrap from.

This policy setting limits a node to resolving but not publishing names in a specific Peer Name Resolution Protocol (PNRP) cloud. This policy setting forces computers to act as clients in peer-to-peer (P2P) scenarios. For example a client computer can detect other computers to initiate chat sessions but other computers cannot detect that client and initiate sessions with it. If you enable this policy setting this computer cannot register PNRP names and cannot help other computers perform PNRP lookups. If you disable or do not configure this policy setting this computer can publish PNRP names and help other computers perform PNRP lookups.

This policy setting enables or disables PNRP cloud creation. PNRP is a distributed name resolution protocol allowing Internet hosts to publish peer names with a corresponding Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) address. Other hosts can then resolve the name retrieve the corresponding address and establish peer-to-peer (P2P) connections. The PNRP cloud is a group of connected PNRP nodes in which connections exist between peers so that a node in the PNRP cloud can resolve names published by other nodes. PNRP creates a global cloud if the computer has a global IPv6 address but creates a site-local cloud if the computer has a site-local address. If you enable this policy setting PNRP does not create a cloud and applications cannot use this cloud to publish or resolve names regardless of whether the computer has an IPv6 address that matches the cloud scope. If you disable or do not configure this policy setting all PNRP clouds are turned on by default and PNRP creates a cloud if the computer has an IPv6 address compatible with the cloud’s scope.