Additional Offline Files Policy Settings for Windows 7

The following Group Policy settings for managing Offline Files are new in Windows 7:

• Configure Background Sync This policy setting applies to any user who logs on to the specified machine while this policy is in effect. This policy is in effect when a network folder is determined by the Configure Slow-Link Mode policy to be in slow-link mode.
  For network folders in slow-link mode, a sync will be initiated in the background on a regular basis, according to these settings, to synchronize the files in those shares/folders between the client and server. By default, network folders in slow-link mode will be synchronized with the server every 360 minutes, with the start of the sync varying between 0 and 60 additional minutes.
  You can override the default sync interval and variance by setting Sync Interval and Sync Variance values. You can also set a period of time in which background sync is disabled by setting Blockout Start Time and Blockout Duration values. To ensure that all the network folders on the machine are synchronized with the server on a regular basis, you may also set the Maximum Allowed Time Without A Sync value.
  You may also configure Background Sync for network shares that are in user-selected Work Offline mode. This mode is in effect when a user selects the Work Offline option for a specific share. When selected, all configured settings will apply to shares in userselected Work Offline mode as well.
• Enable Transparent Caching Enabling this policy optimizes subsequent reads to network files by a user or an application. This is done by caching reads to remote files over a slow network in the Offline Files cache. Subsequent reads to the same file are then satisfied from the client after verifying the integrity of the cached copy. This policy not only improves user response times but also decreases bandwidth consumption over the WAN links to the server. The cached files are temporary and are not available to the user when offline. The cached files are not kept in sync with the version on the server, and the most current version from the server is always available for subsequent reads.
  This policy is triggered by the configured round-trip network latency value. We recommend using this policy when the network connection to the server is slow. For example, you can configure a value of 60 milliseconds as the roundtrip latency of the network above which files should be transparently cached in the Offline Files cache. If the round-trip latency of the network is less than 60 milliseconds, reads to remote files will not be cached. If you do not configure this setting, remote files will not be transparently cached on user clients.
• Exclude Files From Being Cached This policy enables administrators to exclude certain file types from being made available offline. You need to specify the file extensions of the file types that should be excluded. A user then will be unable to create a file of this type in the folders that are available offline.