How to configure your team’s desktop with GPO

Admins Updated Jun 13, 2024

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This feature is for admins of Dropbox teams who use the Group Policy Object (GPO) feature with Microsoft Active Directory to manage their team’s IT.

Admins of Dropbox teams can configure their team members’ Dropbox desktop app preferences remotely using GPO. They can choose to configure preferences for individual team members, groups of team members, or whole teams.

To configure these preferences, download these .admx and .adml file templates from GitHub or refer to the tables below. The root directory for all preferences is “HKCU\SOFTWARE\Policies\Dropbox”.

How to configure general preferences

Admins can configure general preferences for their team using the key “HKCU\SOFTWARE\Policies\Dropbox\General”.

Preference setting Registry name Option Value
Start Dropbox on system startup StartDropboxOnSystemStartup Enabled 1 (Default)
    Disabled 0
Dropbox Badge DropboxBadge Always show 1 (Default)
    If others present 2
    Never show 0
Open folders in OpenFoldersIn File Explorer 0
    Dropbox desktop app 1 (Default)
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Notes:

  • The following preference settings can only be configured by the team member:
    • Open the desktop app when starting Dropbox
    • Language
  • Teams with Microsoft co-authoring enabled won’t be able to use Dropbox Badge. Learn more about co-authoring.

How to configure network preferences

Admins can configure LAN sync preferences for their team using the key “HKCU\SOFTWARE\Policies\Dropbox\Bandwidth”.

Preference setting Registry name Option Value
Enable LAN Sync EnableLANSync Enabled 1
    Disabled 0

Admins can configure bandwidth preferences for their team using the key “HKCU\SOFTWARE\Policies\Dropbox\Bandwidth”.

Preference setting Registry name Option Value
Download rate DownloadRate Don't limit 2
  DownloadRateKBs Limit to (KB/s) DWORD
Upload rate UploadRate Don't limit 2
  UploadRateKBs Limit to (KB/s) DWORD
    Limit automatically 1

Admins can configure proxy preferences for their team using the key “HKCU\SOFTWARE\Policies\Dropbox\Proxies”.

Preference setting Registry name Option Value
Proxy settings ProxyMode No proxy 0
    Auto-detect 1 (Default)
    Manual 2
Proxy type ProxyType HTTP HTTP
    SOCKS4 SOCKS4
    SOCKS5 SOCKS5
Server ProxyServer [Name of the proxy server] <none>
Port ProxyPort [Proxy server port number] 8080 (Default)
Proxy server requires password ProxyServerRequiresPassword Enable 1
    Disable 0 (Default)
Username Username [Username of proxy server] STRING
Password Password [Password of proxy server] STRING

How to configure locking preferences

Admins can configure locking preferences to choose if team members can override their admin’s preferences.

Preference setting Registry name Option Value
Locked setting LockedSetting Locked (Preference can’t be overridden by the team member. It’s grayed out in their app preferences.) 1
    Unlocked (Preference can be overridden by the team member and is available in their app preferences.) 0

Configure update preferences

Admins can set team members’ desktop apps to reread the registry values and update their preferences at specific time intervals.

Preference setting Registry name Option Value
Interval setting SettingsPollInterval Time (in seconds)

 

DWORD (Default = 3600)

 
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