Is it normal for App Layering OS Tools clear local GPO registry keys

[Chris Carter1709157035]

Good Morning,

I have had some strange issues in the past few ELM upgrades. When upgrading the machine tool on the OS layer, after upgrading the ELM, (I know it is not necessary but blogs say its a good idea), I will restart my packaging layer and specific policy registry keys are missing

 

for example two known  keys that disappear is

disable “Show Search Highlights” from the Searchbar

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Search]

"EnableDynamicContentInWSB"=dword:00000000

 

Disable “News and Interest” from the task bar

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Feeds]

"EnableFeeds"=dword:00000000

 

In gpedit.msc the policy still shows Disabled but the corresponding registry key is missing.

 

Is this normal or a standard procedure to remove keys that have been set at one point? Please let me know if any other information would be helpful.

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Chris

 

[Chris Carter1709157035]

I have found an answer to this. I am not sure if it is a flaw in the code or my work but I find when applying/expanding the latest Machine OS Tools in the OS layer it will run the gposetup.cmd file from c:\windows\setup\scripts\kmsdir. When that cmd run it will copy a version of the gpt.ini file to c:\windows\system32\grouppolicy and overwrite the existing .ini file. Our organization like to build solutions in a local group policy so we do not have to worry about changes in ADGPO but when we expanded the tools/drivers it would wipe out registry keys on reboot due to this .ini file. Looks like my only solution will be to build a script that i can plug in the machine OS tools.exe file that will run a backup of my gpt.ini, expand the tools and then replace the gpt.ini before I reboot.

 

So for those reading, if you feel like registry keys/policies have been set but are randomly missing....try to remember the last time you updated your OS tools and look into your gpt.ini file!!