Group Policy Preferences Not Applying on Some Clients: Client-Side Extension, XMLLite
Group Policy Preferences quick tip: To ensure that preferences are applied to clients, make sure that clients have the CSEs and XMLLite installed
If you’re like us, you’re seriously excited about Group Policy Preferences. You’re excited because you can’t wait to save yourself scripting time, and to use the rich administration UI and item-level targeting capabilities of Group Policy Preferences to better manage your clients. So you’ve configured several preference items in the GPMC and added them to a GPO. And now you want to apply these preference items to clients. To make sure that your preference items are actually applied to clients,you’ll need to do the following to make sure that everything is in place:
1. Install the Group Policy Client-Side Extensions (CSEs) on any clients on which you plan to deploy preference items, if the CSEs are not already installed by default. These are required for clients to process Group Policy Preferences.
2. Install XMLLite on the same clients, it is not already installed by default. (No, XMLLite is not a beer, it’s a lightweight XML parser.)
There are two main options for how to install the CSEs and XMLLite:
Option 1: Use a script
Fortunately for us, Jakob H. Heidelberg wrote a handy script that detects whether the CSEs and XMLLite are already installed and then installs them if needed. To get the script and instructions, see: https://heidelbergit.blogspot.com/2008/03/how-to-install-gpp-cses-using-startup.html.
Option 2: Get the CSEs via Windows Update or WSUS, or from the Download Center. Then, get XMLLite from the Download Center.
If you’re going with this option, how do you know whether the CSEs and XMLLite need to be installed, and where do you get them?
CSEs: Requirements and Download Location
For the CSEs, this table summarizes requirements and tells you where to get the CSEs, if you need to get them from the Download Center rather than Windows Update or WSUS:
Operating systems |
Do CSEs need to be installed? |
Where to get the CSEs |
Windows Server 2008 |
No (CSEs are already included) |
N/A, not required |
Windows Vista, Windows Vista with Service Pack 1 |
Yes |
32-bit edition: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=111859 64-bit edition: |
Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or later |
Yes |
32-bit edition: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=111851 64-bit edition: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=111862 |
Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1 or later |
Yes |
32-bit edition: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=111852 64-bit edition: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=111863 |
XMLLite: Requirements and Download Location
For XMLLite, we have another table. First, a note on requirements. XMLLite is not needed if:
· Your clients run Windows Server 2008 or Windows Vista.
· Your clients Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 clients run Internet Explorer 7 and/or the latest service packs.
For clients that run Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP operating system versions that support the CSEs, this table summarizes requirements and tells you where to get XMLLite from the Download Center.
Operating systems |
Does XMLLite need to be installed? |
Where to get XMLLite |
Windows XP SP3 |
No, XMLLite is already included |
N/A, not required |
Windows XP SP 2 |
Yes, unless Internet Explorer 7 is installed (in which case XMLLite is included) |
|
Windows Server 2003 SP2 |
No, XMLLite is included |
N/A, not required |
Windows Server 2003 SP1 |
Yes, unless Internet Explorer 7 is installed |
We hope that this information helps make your life easier. And if you need more information about Group Policy Preferences, check out the Group Policy Preferences Overview.
-Connie Rock(“and Roll”), Group Policy User Assistance