UPDATED: Oct 5, 2008: Updated v1.1 .ADM file with corrections and additional settings. Download here.

One of the most powerful things about Microsoft System Center Mobile Device Manager (SCMDM) is the ability to manage all of your Windows Mobile 6.1 or above devices through Active Directory (AD) Group Policy Objects (GPOs). A large percentage of the corporate market is already using GPOs to manage their desktop, notebook and server environments.

The GPO technology was introduced in Windows 2000 Server. Before that there were System Policies in Windows NT 4.0. There is already a fair amount of documentation and knowledge around extending GPOs to your own needs. But here I will go into some aspects more important around making use of SCMDM and supporting Windows Mobile in an enterprise running AD.

In this article I will go through how you can extend your own GPOs to have additional settings not available out of the box in the default Windows Mobile GPO template supplied by Microsoft in SCMDM 2008. I will expect that you already know how to access and use the default SCMDM GPO settings.

Windows Mobile Registry Keys

GPOs work by manipulating how registry keys are changed and written on the client machines. This is no different on Windows Mobile, compared to other Windows platforms at this point in time.

I will save the discussion on where to find and research Windows Mobile registry locations. But will point out that many are bound to specific OS levels, OEM and hardware requirements. So what works on one WM device may not work on another. So I can’t stress enough the aspect of testing such settings before a larger deployment to end-users.

For this article I have asked my colleague, Chris De Herrera, to suggest some registry keys to use:

Improve text rendering performance by increasing the GLYPH Cache to 32k (decimal):

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\GDI\GLYPHCACHE]
“limit”=dword:00008000

Internet Explorer Mobile homepage settings:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\AboutURLs]
“home_0409″=”file://\\windows\\default_0409.htm“
“version_0409″=”file://\\windows\\about_0409.htm“
“blank”=”res://webview.dll/blank.htm”

Configure Communicator Mobile:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Communicator\System Settings]
“ServerInternal”=”sip.yourcompany.com”
“Server”=”sip.yourcompany.com:443″

Furthermore I have also researched the following registry keys which may be helpful in corporate environments:

ClearType Activation:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\GDI\ClearType][HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings]
“ClearTypeText”=dword:1[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\GDI\ClearTypeSettings]
“OffOnRotation”=dword:0

Browser History:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main]
“DaysToKeep”=dword:00001E

Default Search Page:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main]
“Search Page”=http://m.live.com/search/Results.aspx?q=%&mid=8001

Internet Explorer User Agent:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\5.0\User Agent]
“Default”=”Mozilla/4.0″
“Platform”=”Windows CE”
“Version”=”MSIE 6.0″

Menu Animations:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\GWE\Menu]
“AniType”=dword:0

Windows Animations:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\GWE]
“Animate”=dword:0

Error Reporting:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\ErrorReporting\DumpSettings]
“DumpEnabled”=dword:0
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\ErrorReporting\UploadSettings]
“DontUpload”=dword:1[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\ErrorReporting\UploadSettings]
“ConnectionFlags”=dword:0

Today Screen Text:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Shell\DeviceBeta]
“Today”=”EnterpriseMobile”

Display Time/Date in Taskbar or disable for battery indicator:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Shell]
“TBOpt”=dword:3
“ShowTitleBarClock”=dword:1

Permit Bluetooth and IrDA File Transfer:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Obex]
“IsEnabled”=dword:1

Please be aware that most of these settings require a soft reboot of the device before they become effective. The SCMDM policy agent should prompt you for a reboot of the device when an updated policy is synchronized from the Device Management Server.

Creating .ADM Files

Using the information published here about the correct registry key prefix to use for GPOs on Windows Mobile I created my own .ADM file with my sample registry keys listed above and a few other samples currently available.

You can download it here. I have noted in my sample the references used.

Look for a new folder called “Windows Mobile Settings-Extended” in the Computer Configuration section of the Group Policy Object Editor.

GPO-Policies-v1.1 
The single main trick was to prefix the native Windows Mobile registry keys with the <SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Mobile Settings\Registry> path.

So the native:
<HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\AboutURLs> became the longer:
<SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Mobile Settings\Registry\HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\AboutURLs>.

Note the collapsed HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE hive into the named HKLM. This also works for the HKEY_CURRENT_USER hive into HKCU.

Further Information on .ADM Files

Please see the reference links below for more details on the syntax used in the example .ADM file. The syntax and commands are not the easiest in the world of IT.

I also found a ADM file editor, called ADM Template Editor from a small company in Australia that may be useful if you are planning to write and manage a large number of custom .ADM/.ADMX files.

Again, please test the policies on the OS platform, level, and hardware you wish to broadly deploy your Windows Mobile settings out to.

Look for more articles soon on useful Windows Mobile registry keys and GPOs!

References:

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mnielsen(at)enterprisemobile.com
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