Windows – Unable to completely disable Offline Files feature for Windows 7 in GPO

group-policyoffline-fileswindows 7

I have been trying to completely disable the offline files feature for all the W7 PCs on the domain that I manage. I have been unable to.

I do not want this feature as it creates unwanted, largely unnecesary network traffic every time a computer logs in (and presumably – out?)

I have tried setting the GPO settings (example – Synchronize all offline files when logging on – disabled, Synchronize all offline files before logging off – disabled, Allow or disallow use of offline files feature – disabled) in both Computer Configuration and User Configuration. But my W7 machines still happily sync files when they log on.

I am wondering if this is because my domain functional level is 2003. Should it be 2008 for these settings to work on W7 machines?

If not, any ideas why I can't get these settings to apply? (Other GPO settings work fine for the W7 machines)

Best Answer

I have disabled this on my network too since we are not using Offline Files. The option you want is under:

Computer Configuration | Policies | Administrative Templates | Network | Offline Files | Allow or Disallow use of the Offline Files feature | Disabled

Alternatively, you can disable this in the registry too using this batch file command:

reg add "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\CSC" /v "Start" /t REG_DWORD /d 4 /f

Reference for registry option:

http://www.technlg.net/windows/disable-offline-files-registry-key/ http://www.technlg.net/windows/disable-offline-files-from-command-line/

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