Favorites & Links Contain Defaults for New User Although Group Policy Is Set to Delete These (250813)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Windows 2000 Server
  • Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server
  • Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
This article was previously published under Q250813

SYMPTOMS

When a user logs on to a computer that is a member of a Windows 2000-based domain and a Group Policy object (GPO) for the domain is set to delete existing favorites and links in Microsoft Internet Explorer, the default favorites and links may still exist in Internet Explorer.

CAUSE

This behavior can occur if the GPO is applied to the user account just before the favorites and links are created in the user profile. The favorites and links are not deleted by the GPO the first time that a new user logs on because they have not been created yet. The files are deleted the next time the user logs on.

RESOLUTION

When the user logs off and back on, the favorites and links are deleted per the GPO.

If the favorites and links must be deleted the first time that a new user logs on, you can create a batch file with the following commands:

del %UserProfile%\favorites\*.url
del %UserProfile%\favorites\links\*.url
del %UserProfile%\favorites\media\*.url

Note that the %UserProfile% variable is the path to the folder that contains the user profiles. When a user logs on, the current profile path is inserted into the variable and the command will delete the files.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.
Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:11/20/2003
Keywords:kbGPO kbprb KB250813
©2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.