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How to use Group Policy to black/white list wireless networks in Vista & Windows 7. I have seen an number of posts form IT Administrators on the Microsoft Group Policy forums asking how prevent their users from connecting to a wireless network. Maybe it is because they have an open WIFI network on the floor above that users keep connecting to so they can by pass the proxy server URL restrictions or they don’t want their users from accessing the internet from well known WIFI hot spots. In the tutorial below I am going to show you how to block your laptops from connecting to specific wireless networks with the example SSID of “dlink”. This black list method is useful when you want to prevent users from connecting to networks such as “Free Public Wi. Fi” which is nothing more than a trap set by hacker to steal people’s passwords.
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Then I will go through the way will to block all wireless networks except for one called “private. This is very useful if you only want your users to connect to wireless network you know are safe to use.
Lastly I will then quickly show you how to totally disable your wireless adapter from being able to connect to any networks. The instructions below are specific to Vista and Windows 7 as there were a whole heap of new group policy settings that were introduced back when Vista was released. How to Black List/White List Wireless Networks using Group Policy. Note: Steps 1 to 5 are common for setting up both black and white lists.
Then the process branches and describes how to setup a black list then white list in steps 6 & 7. Step 1. This is a computer based setting so edit a Group Policy Object (GPO) that is targeted to all the laptops in your network.
Step 2. Navigate to Computer Configuration > Policies > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Wireless Network (IEEE 8. Policies. Step 3. Click on “Action” in the menu and then click on “Create A New Wireless Network Policy for Windows Vista and Later Releases”. Note: You can only create one Windows Vista and later and one Windows XP wireless setting within each GPO. Step 4. Now give the give the setting a Policy Name and Description. Ensure that the “Use Windows WLAN Auto.
COnfig service for clients” is ticked so that Windows does not allow third- party software to control the wireless network adapter (e. Intel Wireless LAN configuration Tool). Now click on the Network Permission Tab and click “Add. Type in the name of the SSID you want to black list (e. Infrastructure) and select . Click “OK”Now the user views all the wireless network the will no longer be able to connect the network that has been configured as Deny. Type in the name of the SSID you want to white list (e.
Infrastructure) and select . Tick “Prevent connections to ad- hoc networks” and tick “Prevent connections to infrastructure networks” then click “OK”Now you will ONLY be able to connect to the wireless network called “private.
How to disable your wireless networks access via Group Policy. Now if you want to totally deny you users from connecting to any network profile just skip step 6. You users will no longer be able to connect to any wireless networks and when they click on the network in they will receive the message “Your network administrator has blocked you from connecting to this network”.
Note: Any network profile you have configured in the General tab will be automatically added as an allowed network having the two “Prevent connections” options tick will ensure that the user will not be able to connect to anything but your corporate wireless network.
Royale Noir: secret XP theme uncovered (download)If you don’t fancy the back story, skip directly to download. Sometime after the launch of XP, somewhere in Redmond, someone on the Microsoft design team was in the progress of developing something for Media Center. It was believed to be too powerful for public consumption and forever archived in the servers at 1 Microsoft Way. Now, a young hobbit man by the name of W3bbo saw light of this unheard of theme, and traveled far and wide to uncover its mysteries.
One theme to find. One theme to upload. One theme to rule them all. Devoted Channel. 9 member W3bbo spotted an interesting theme on one of the “people. After some dedicated searching, he finally uncovered this mystery Windows XP theme by Microsoft.
W3bbo writes,During Royale. The result is an aesthetic black skin named “Royale Noir”, it even works with Office 2. Since the skin was never released (or reached final adjustments) there are a few issues with it: some of the colors don’t meet the overall “feel” (they’re too purple- ish compared to the greys of the bitmaps) and the inactive titlebars are a little too dark. You’ll find it’s been signed by Microsoft and doesn’t require a custom Ux. Theme. dll in case there are any doubts as to its authenticity.
If you already have Royale installed, you’ll need to remove it as both of these skins share the same name. This skin has not been released to anyone outside Microsoft, until now. Without a doubt, XP Media Center’s Royale theme was a huge improvement over Luna. It updated the clich. In my opinion, it was the most usable non- standard XP theme available. Royale Noir is an almost exact copy of Royale except with a dark purplish tint. If Royale was day, Royale Noir is night.
No doubt about it, this is a . If you’re the sort of person who likes bright and vivid colors, stay away from this theme. As W3bbo pointed out, there are quite definitely issues with this theme due to its incompleteness.
The most obvious being, the “Start” button’s hover and active states are unchanged from Royale, inconsistent with the purple tint surrounding. However, there is even a color scheme for Office 2. Luna colors. Looking at it from the big picture, Royale Noir is a welcomed alternative to the extremely small collection of verified- by- Microsoft XP themes. However being incomplete, it is not recommended for the general consumers. Enthusiasts are welcomed to try it to stand out from the crowd, but even still, you’ll feel right at home with the familiar Luna/Royale style. As I emphasize again, I take no credit for this amazing find. W3bbo did an amazing job uncovering this mystery XP theme.