Power Scheme Group Policy

  • Thread starter Thread starter Lotsie Wooten
  • Start date Start date
L

Lotsie Wooten

Is there a group policy to modify the Power Scheme across
the network for Windows XP?
 
I found that this can be done through a policy by using the
powercfg.exe tool. This is available on the Windows Server 2003 cd
and installation. It will work on Windows 2003, XP sp1, and maybe on
XP and 2000. I tested it only on XP sp1 and on 2000 sp3 and it
appeared to work fine.

Documentation for this tool can be found at

324347 How to Use Powercfg.exe in Windows Server 2003
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=324347

Here is how I created this policy
1. Copy the powercfg.exe and the batch file to the netlogon share
Here is what I used for a batch file
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
@echo off
net use x: \\domain.com\netlogon
x:
powercfg.exe /change "always on" /monitor-timeout-ac 20
powercfg.exe /SETACTIVE "always on"
c:
net use x: /delete
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

2. Create a group policy that will be applied by the computer and
the user

3. Add the path to the netlogon share and the batch file that you
have created as a logon script.

4. Go to the user rights section of the policy under the computer
configuration and give the users the right to "shut down the system".

5. Go the the registry section under computer\windows
settings\security settings section of the policy and give the users
full control to the following keys. I set this to propagate to the
sub folders.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ControlsF
older\PowerCfg

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\PowerCfg

Once the policy applies the setting will take effect the second time
the user logs in. The first time it will fail because the other
rights and permissions have not taken effect.

Now this gives the users the rights to change this setting.

So as an additional part of the policy you can use the file system
permissions section to Deny the users the right to the file
%systemroot\system32\powercfg.cpl. This will not let them open the
Control Panel extension to view or change the power settings even
though they have the actual power to change the settings.



Tom Ausburne (MSFT)
Windows 2000 Directory Services
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights.
 
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