Lenovo ThinkPad Edge 15 - Manual (Page 105)

SP.PQI
This file can be used to create a type 12 service partition. See “Scenario 3 - Installing on Type 12 service
partition” on page 82 for more information.
Note: This function is not available in Windows Vista.
Active Directory Support
Active Directory is a directory service. The directory is where information about users and resources is
stored. The directory service allows access so you can manipulate those resources.
Active Directory provides a mechanism that gives administrators the ability to manage computers, groups,
users, domains, security policies, and any type of user-defined objects. The mechanism used by Active
Directory to accomplish this is known as Group Policy. With Group Policy, administrators define settings that
can be applied to computers or users in the domain.
ThinkVantage Technology products currently use a variety of methods for gathering settings used to control
program settings, including reading from specific application-defined registry entries.
For Rescue and Recovery, Active Directory can manage such settings as:
• Set back up locations.
• Set back up dates and times.
Administrative (ADM) template files
The ADM (Administrative) template file defines policy settings used by applications on the client computers.
Policies are specific settings that govern the application behavior. Policy settings also define whether the
user will be allowed to set specific settings through the application.
Settings defined by an administrator on the server are defined as policies. Settings defined by a user on the
client computer for an application are defined as preferences. As defined by Microsoft, policy settings take
precedence over preferences.
For example, a user may put a background image on his desktop. This is the user's preference setting. An
administrator may define a setting on the server that dictates that a user must use a specific background
image. The administrators policy setting will override the preference set by the user.
When Rescue and Recovery checks for a setting, it will look for the setting in the following order:
• Computer policies
• User policies
• Default user policies
• Computer preferences
• User preferences
• Default user preferences
As described previously, computer and user policies are defined by the administrator. These settings can be
initialized through the XML configuration file or through a Group Policy in the Active Directory. Computer and
user preferences are set by the user on the client computer through options in the applications interface.
Default user preferences are initialized by the XML configuration script. Users do not change the values
directly. Changes made to these settings by a user will be updated in the user preferences.
Appendix A. Administrative tools 97