If you install IE 10 on your own Windows 7 (or Windows 8) machine you lose the ability to manage Internet Explorer Maintenance. Plus, IEM settings stop working. What are you going to do? This video explains it quickly.

Internet Explorer 10 and Internet Explorer Maintenance – the whole story Video Transcript

Hi, everyone. This is Jeremy Moskowitz, former Group Policy MVP and Founder of GPanswers.com and PolicyPak Software. In this video, I’m going to show you the cold, hard truth about Internet Explorer maintenance and Internet Explorer 10.

This is a redo. I actually already talked about this in a video, but I’ve nuked that video. It doesn’t exist anymore. I’ve created a new video from scratch because I missed a very important point, and let’s go over it. Let me go through the whole thing soup-to-nuts.

I happen to be on a Windows Server 2008 R2, or maybe you could be a Windows 7 machine. I’m running the GPMC, and I decide for all of my “East Sales Users” I want to do a new “IEM Policy to set the Proxy.” OK? I want to set the proxy. OK, great.

I go dive down here under user side under “Policies/Windows Settings/Internet Explorer Maintenance/Connection/Proxy Settings” and set the proxy of “proxy 1,” and I’ll make this “Port” “88.” OK, fantastic. I’m on this machine, and that’s all set. Let’s take a look at it in the “Settings” report and make sure I didn’t pull a fast one on you here. Let’s take a look. Sure enough, there it is.

Then you decide you are on your second machine. We’re talking about you – yes, you – are on your Windows 8 machine, and you decide to run the GPMC – “gpmc.msc” – on that machine. OK, cool. Let’s go in on that, and let’s take a look here.

We go to “Sales/East Sales/East Sales Users/IEM Policy to set Proxy” and we take a look at the “Settings” report. Again, sure enough, we see that there’s stuff there, but you didn’t mean 88. You meant 89, so you right click over it, you click “Edit” and you dive down under user side “Policies/Windows Settings” and, hey, wait a minute. Where’s Internet Explorer Maintenance?

On your Windows 8 machine that’s running Internet Explorer 10 – just to prove a point, you’re running Internet Explorer 10 here – you lose the ability to manage Internet Explorer Maintenance settings.

That’s the first thing, but then you think, “OK, great. Well, let’s go down to another Windows 7 machine and let’s do it again.” Let me log on as my administrator here, and then we’ll run the GPMC on this machine. Do it again here – “gpmc.msc” – run it on this machine here.

We’ll dive down again under “Sales/East Sales/East Sales Users,” and once again on our Windows 7 machine now let’s make sure the “Settings” are there. Yes, sure enough, the settings are there, but then you right click again, click “Edit” and on your Windows 7 machine you go to user side “Policies/Windows Settings” and, hey, they’re not there.

This is what I mentioned in the last video. What I mentioned in the last video is that when you – yes, you, Mr. or Ms. Admin – is running Internet Explorer 10, you – yes, you – lose the ability to manage Internet Explorer Maintenance settings. Here’s the kicker. They’re there. The data is there in the Group Policy Object, but you can’t access it anymore.

Why can I see it over on this machine? Because this machine – whatever type it is, it doesn’t matter – is running an older version of Internet Explorer. Said another way, as soon as you – yes, you – get Internet Explorer 10 on your management station, you lose the ability to manage Internet Explorer Maintenance.

Now that’s what I covered in the last video. What I missed describing in the last video was, you’ve got these settings. The data is there. You think everything is good. Let’s go over to our machine here. Let’s run “gpupdate” here. Actually, let’s do this as an East Sales User. It’s not going to work as that guy, so let me log off here. We’ll log on as Mr. “eastsalesuser1” here because, again, I linked that Group Policy Object over to East Sales.

What’s your expectation? There’s data in the Group Policy Object, and it’s linked over to the right place and I’m logging on as the right user, so magic should occur and I should get this setting. Well, that’s exactly what doesn’t happen.

Let’s go ahead and go to “Internet Explorer” here. Remember, I’m running IE 10. Go over to “Internet Options.” Go over to “Connections,” “LAN settings” and no “Proxy server.” Here’s the thing I didn’t mention in the last video – that you can’t find anymore because I’ve deleted it – which is when your users are running Internet Explorer 10, they promptly ignore all Internet Explorer Maintenance settings.

OK, that’s bad news. Let’s think about this. You’ve got  bunch of stuff. It’s already in the Group Policy Object. You’ve made a bunch of settings changes and things. You roll out Internet Explorer 10 using WSUS or whatever, and now promptly your users don’t get those things. What are you going to do?

This is where I created a whitepaper for you. Let me show you exactly how to find this whitepaper. It’s hanging out over here on the “PolicyPak” website (“www.policypak.com”). Over here under “Windows Security Whitepapers,” I have one here called “What most Internet Explorer Admins don’t know about application management.”

When you go ahead and you click to “DOWNLOAD NOW” the paper, let me show you a quick sneak preview of what the paper looks like before you even download it. Basically, inside the paper, you’re going to learn all about the differences between “ADMX,” “ADM,” “Internet Explorer,” “Group Policy Preferences” and the IEAK (“Internet Explorer Administrative Kit”) and how PolicyPak can help as well.

Long story short, if you’re looking for a plan about what technology to use under what circumstance, I think you’re going to really like this paper. It took me a long time to write, and I recently updated it to make sure this craziness with Internet Explorer Maintenance and IE 10 is all covered in the paper.

All you have to do is click on “DOWNLOAD NOW,” fill out your information and you’ll get the whitepaper. If you like what you see in the whitepaper and you’re looking to get more information about PolicyPak and give it a test drive, come on over to “Webinar/Download” and then you can sign up for a webinar and afterward download the bits and see if it’s right for you.

Alright, thanks so much. I hope this has been informative and you learned a little something about Internet Explorer 10.

Take care.