| Date tip published: | 01/15/2006 |
| Description: | In previous Notes/Domino releases, administrators could use policies to set options in the Notes client each time the users authenticated with their home server. In between these authentications, users could change their client-side options, although they would be re-set on the next authentication. This was frustrating for both administrators and users. Administrators can now "lock down" many of the choices set by policies so that users are unable to alter them. |
To learn more about the new features for administrators in Notes Domino 7 use the following links:
Notes Domino 7 System Administration Update
 New Feature in Notes 7 - Locking Down Policy Settings
In previous Notes/Domino releases, administrators could use policies to set options in the Notes client each time the users authenticated with their home server. In between these authentications, users could change their client-side options, although they would be re-set on the next authentication. This was frustrating for both administrators and users.
Administrators can now "lock down" many of the choices set by policies so that users are unable to alter them. From the user perspective, these options appear greyed out.
The Settings documents that include this capability are the Desktop and Mail Settings.
 "Lockable" Settings in Earlier Releases
Earlier releases of Domino did include some ability to lock client-side settings. For instance, administrators were able to use the Archive Settings to set an archiving schedule for users' mail databases, and they were able to prevent users from altering this schedule. These options remain in Release 7 as they were in earlier releases. |
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The Desktop Settings document locks options on a tab-by-tab or section-by-section basis. As an example, the screenshot below shows the Preferences\Basics tab of a Desktop Settings document. The Allow users to change settings on this tab field is used to lock or unlock all the options on this tab.
Options that are set here will appear greyed out to users, or become "read-only" fields. Options that are not set (i.e., that are left blank) will still be available in the client.
"Don't Change" Option
The "Don't Change" option on the Desktop Settings document now reverts back to a blank field. |
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The Mail Settings document locks options on a field-by-field basis, as pictured below. To disable users' ability to change an option, uncheck the Allow field for that option. By default, the Allow field is checked for all options.
The Apply this setting field is also new to Release 7. The three available options are:
- "Don't Change" -- The user's preference will not be overridden.
- "Always" -- The user's preference will be changed to match the policy every time the user authenticates.
- "Initially" -- The user's preference will only be changed the first time the policy is applied, allowing the user to change the preference later.
"Don't Change" and the Allow Field
In the screenshot above, "Don't Change" is selected for the Spell Checking field, and the Allow field is unchecked. The next time the policy is applied (i.e, the next time users authenticate), their spell-checking preference will not be changed, but it will become unavailable to them. In effect, their current setting will become "frozen". The "Don't Change" option would not normally be used when Allow is unchecked.
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As with the Desktop Settings, options that are locked in the Mail Settings document will appear greyed out to users, or, if they are options that are set on documents in the users' Personal Address Books, they will appear as read-only fields. There will also be a note displayed in the Preferences dialog indicating that some options have been set by the administrator.
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