Using Windows' Group Policy Object to Configure DWP

If you are experienced with Windows Active Directory and the Group Policy Object editor to manage configurations, you can use the administrative template (ADM file) that is available from the Web Security Service Management Portal. This template contains the registry settings required to update the DWP installations within your Group Policy network.

To use the ADM template:

• On the Web Security Service Management Portal, open Resources > Downloads.
• Click ADM File to open the template.
• Copy the contents and paste into a text editor, then save the file with the .adm extension.

Note: If you have already created ADM files for configuring DWP from the Group Policy Editor, remove them before continuing to the next steps.

• Open Active Directory Users and Computers.
• Create a group policy object or edit an existing one.
• In the policy, right-click Administrative Templates and select Add/Remove Templates:


The Add/Remove Templates window shows all current ADM files. For example:


• Click Add, browse to the location where you saved the ADM file, and add it.
  The DWP ADM file is added to the list. For example:

• Close the window.
  The Desktop Web Proxy Custom Configuration section appears on the Administrative Templates list.
• Select the newly added Desktop Web Proxy Custom Configuration template, then select View > Filtering:

• On the Filtering window, clear the checkbox Only show policy settings that can be fully managed and click OK.


The GPO Editor window is refreshed with the new settings from the template. The right pane displays all configurable settings for DWP. The settings are added to two folders: one containing common settings and another containing user settings.

• Expand these folders to see the settings:
  • Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Desktop Web Proxy Custom Configuration
    This folder displays the common settings.
  • User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Desktop Web Proxy Custom Configuration
    This folder displays user settings.

  The settings' states are initially shown as Not configured as in this example:



The following table maps the options on DWP's System Configuration window to the user settings on the GPO Editor. Entering DWP Settings at the Account Level describes how the settings are used.

Mapping of DWP Settings in System Configuration and GPO Editor Windows
System Configuration settings	GPO Editor settings
Proxy Settings: Address Port	RemoteProxyServerAddress RemoteProxyServerPort
Local Proxy Settings Local Proxy Port	LocalProxyPort
Caching Proxy Settings: Address	UpstreamProxies
Connection: Enable Automatic User Name Resolution Enable Dynamic Hot Spot Management Allow Process Port Update Allow Unsafe Browsing	EnablePrimeLogin EnableCyberCafeMode AllowProcessUpdate AllowUnSafeBrowsing
Automatic Configuration Script Enable Automatic Configuration Address	EnableAutoConfigScript AutoConfigScriptAddress

• In the user settings folder, leave the UserName setting as is (Not configured).
  This ensures that DWP obtains credentials for all users, including mobile users who connect from outside the corporate network. If you change the setting to Enabled, mobile users are not authenticated properly and are blocked from Internet access.
• Right-click the remaining settings to display the Properties window, and select Enabled.
  Enabled settings use the default values, which you can modify.

Caution: Do not change the default values for ProcessUploadURL, ConnectionListURL, PrimeLoginURL, and CheckUpdateURL. See the following example.

The following example shows the Properties window for an enabled entry whose default value you must not modify. The dialog displays a reminder for such settings.



This example shows the final settings:



In the example, some settings are disabled because they are disabled by default in DWP. If you need to use a disabled feature, see To enable a feature that is disabled by default:

To enable a feature that is disabled by default:

• Open the Properties dialog of a disabled feature.
  This is an example of a disabled feature's Properties dialog:


The dialog has a checkbox that corresponds to the checkbox in the DWP configuration window (for details, see the mapping table above).

• Select the checkbox and click OK.
  On the Group Policy Object Editor window, the feature's state is changed from Disabled to Enabled.

After the ADM is loaded, the settings are added to the Registry Editor in the folder HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Web Filtering. For 64-bit systems, the registry path is HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Web Filtering.

Refer to Using a Script to Automate Registry Settings for related information.