Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista : Using .adm Template Language (part 6)

4.4.3 COMBOBOX

This PART type displays a combo box. It accepts the same options as EDITTEXT, as well as the SUGGESTIONS option, which begins a list of suggestions to be placed in the drop-down list. The suggestions are separated by spaces and must be enclosed in quotation marks (“) when a value includes spaces. If a suggestion name includes white space, it must be enclosed in quotation marks. The list ends with END SUGGESTIONS.

For example, you can establish a list of screen saver names so that the administrator does not have to know the names of the screen savers. Here is a snippet of the original .adm template code for the screen saver file name and the modified syntax using the COMBOBOX syntax:

POLICY !!ScreenSaverFilename
KEYNAME "Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Control Panel\Desktop"
   PART !!ScreenSaverFilename EDITTEXT
   VALUENAME "SCRNSAVE.EXE"
   END PART
END POLICY

Here’s an updated version of the screen saver option with a COMBOBOX.

POLICY !!ScreenSaverFilename
KEYNAME "Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Control Panel\Desktop"
   PART !!Screensaverpicker COMBOBOX
   VALUENAME "SCRNSAVE.EXE"
      SUGGESTIONS
        C:\WINNT\System32\ssstars.scr
        C:\WINNT\System32\ssbezier.scr
        C:\WINNT\System32\ssflwbox.scr
      END SUGGESTIONS
   END PART
END POLICY

The resulting GPME text for this new syntax appears as shown Figure 3.

Figure 3. The COMBOBOX syntax allows you to provide a set list of options instead of forcing administrators to remember the file names for certain registry value data.

Tip

If you use the STRINGS syntax for the name of the COMBOBOX, the entry can be just a single word, where the variable is an entire sentence. This approach is useful, because if you have more than one word within the quotation marks, you will receive an error when you attempt to import the administrative template into the GPO. Additional syntax that you can use in conjunction with COMBOBOX includes KEYNAME, VALUENAME, DEFAULT, SUGGESTIONS, REQUIRED, MAXLENTGH, OEMCONVERT, END, EXPANDABLETEXT, NOSORT, and CLIENTEXT.