How to Manage Backup Using Group Policy Settings
You can use Group Policy to manage Windows Backup options in an enterprise environment. The policy settings for Windows Backup are both user and computer settings. The userspecific settings are client-only settings and are found in the following location:
User Configuration\Policies\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Backup\Client
The computer settings are for both the client and the server and are found in the following locations:
Computer Configuration\Policies\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Backup\Client
Computer Configuration\Policies\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Backup\Server
Table below lists the available policy settings for Windows Backup. Client settings are available for both User and Computer scopes, but Server settings are available only in the Computer scope. These settings are written to the registry on targeted computers under the following registry key:
Group Policy Settings for Windows Backup
HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Backup| Policy | Client or Server | Description |
| Prevent The User From Running The Backup Status And Configuration Program | Client | Enabling this policy prevents the user from running the Backup Status And Configuration program. The user will be unable to configure, initiate, or restore a backup. |
| Prevent Backing Up To Local Disks | Client | Enabling this policy prevents the user from choosing a local disk (internal or external) as a backup target. |
| Prevent Backing Up To Network Location | Client | Enabling this policy prevents the user from choosing a network share as a backup target. |
| Prevent Backing Up To Optical Media (CD/DVD) | Client | Enabling this policy prevents the user from choosing a CD or DVD as a backup target. |
| Turn Off The Ability To Back Up Data Files | Client | Enabling this policy prevents the user from running the file backup application. The restore functionality is still available, as is Windows System Image Backup. |
| Turn Off Restore Functionality | Client | Enabling this policy prevents the user from using restore. File backups and Windows System Image Backup are still available. |
| Turn Off The Ability To Create A System Image | Client | Enabling this policy prevents the user from using Windows System Image Backup. File backups and restores are still available. |
| Allow Only System Backup | Server | Enabling this policy prevents the user from backing up non-system volumes. |
| Disallow Locally Attached Storage As Backup Target | Server | Enabling this policy prevents the user from backing up to locally attached storage devices. |
| Disallow Network As Backup Target | Server | Enabling this policy prevents the user from backing up to a network share. |
| Disallow Optical Media As Backup Target | Server | Enabling this policy prevents the user from backing up to CD or DVD drives. |
| Disallow Run-Once Backups | Server | Enabling this policy prevents the user from running on-demand backups. |
In this tutorial:
- Managing Disks and File Systems
- Overview of Partitioning Disks
- How to Choose Between MBR or GPT
- Converting from MBR to GPT Disks
- GPT Partitions
- Choosing Basic or Dynamic Disks
- Working with Volumes
- How to Create a Simple Volume
- How to Create a Spanned Volume
- How to Create a Striped Volume
- How to Resize a Volume
- How to Delete a Volume
- How to Create and Use a Virtual Hard Disk
- File System Fragmentation
- Backup And Restore
- How File Backups Work
- File and Folder Backup Structure
- How System Image Backups Work
- How to Start a System Image Backup from the Command Line
- How to Restore a System Image Backup
- System Image Backup Structure
- Best Practices for Computer Backups
- How to Manage Backup Using Group Policy Settings
- Previous Versions and Shadow Copies
- How to Manage Shadow Copies
- How to Restore a File with Previous Versions
- How to Configure Previous Versions with Group Policy Settings
- Windows ReadyBoost
- BitLocker Drive Encryption
- How BitLocker Encrypts Data
- How BitLocker Protects Data
- TPM with External Key (Require Startup USB Key At Every Startup)
- TPM with PIN (Require PIN At Every Startup)
- TPM with PIN and External Key
- BitLocker To Go
- BitLocker Phases
- Requirements for Protecting the System Volume with BitLocker
- How to Enable the Use of BitLocker on the System Volume on Computers Without TPM
- How to Enable BitLocker Encryption on System Volumes
- How to Enable BitLocker Encryption on Data Volumes
- How to Manage BitLocker Keys on a Local Computer
- How to Manage BitLocker from the Command Line
- How to Recover Data Protected by BitLocker
- How to Disable or Remove BitLocker Drive Encryption
- How to Decommission a BitLocker Drive Permanently
- How to Prepare AD DS for BitLocker
- How to Configure a Data Recovery Agent
- How to Manage BitLocker with Group Policy
- The Costs of BitLocker
- Windows 7 Encrypting File System
- How to Export Personal Certificates
- How to Import Personal Certificates
- How to Grant Users Access to an Encrypted File
- Symbolic Links
- How to Create Symbolic Links
- How to Create Relative or Absolute Symbolic Links
- How to Create Symbolic Links to Shared Folders
- How to Use Hard Links
- Disk Quotas
- How to Configure Disk Quotas on a Single Computer
- How to Configure Disk Quotas from a Command Prompt
- How to Configure Disk Quotas by Using Group Policy Settings
- Disk Tools
- EFSDump
- SDelete
- Streams
- Sync
- MoveFile and PendMoves