Internet Explorer 9 - Pop-Up Allow List

I've been reading around TechNet forums about an issue with IE9 not allowing administrators to set a policy for the Pop-Up Blocker's Allow List within a group policy. I stumbled apon this as we're expierencing the same pains of this issue.

I need my pop-ups allowed on certain sites, for all users, on all computers, as a policy and not a preference, throughout our work, and I'm not taking this as an answer: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/ieitprocurrentver/thread/3225f689-aafc-45db-b83e-0300f79d8cab/

"What to do?" you might ask.

Create an old-school .ADM template in notepad, like we've done.

NOTICE: Proceed with caution. The assumption is that you know how to work with Group Policies and Active Directory before proceeding. There is no warranty implied.

1. Open Notepad
   
   
2. Select the text below and copy it into notepad.
   Add / Delete / Modify the websites as needed.

CLASS MACHINE

CLASS USER

CATEGORY "Custom"

CATEGORY "IE 9" 

POLICY "Pop-Up Blocker - Add Custom Sites to list" 

KEYNAME "Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\New Windows\Allow" 

ACTIONLISTON 
VALUENAME "justin-bennett-msjc.blogspot.com" VALUE NUMERIC 0
VALUENAME "www.blogger.com" VALUE NUMERIC 0
END ACTIONLISTON 

ACTIONLISTOFF 
VALUENAME "justin-bennett-msjc.blogspot.com" VALUE DELETE
VALUENAME "www.blogger.com" VALUE DELETE
END ACTIONLISTOFF 

EXPLAIN "Adds the following sites to pop-up blocker: justin-bennett-msjc.blogspot.com and www.blogger.com"

END POLICY 

END CATEGORY 

END CATEGORY ;;

Create a Group Policy for your users and add the template:

1. Open Group Policy Management
   
2. Select your domain name. Then, click the menu item Action and select 'Create a GPO in this domain, and Link it here...'
   
3. Type in a GPO name of your choosing and click Ok.
   
4. Right-click on the newly created GPO Item and select 'Edit...'
   
5. Navigate to User Configuration, Policies, and Administrative Templates. Right-Click on Administrative Templates and Select 'Add/Remove Templates...'
   
6. Click Add. Select the .adm file you created earlier and click Open. Then click Close.
   
   
   
7. Navigate to User Configuration, Policies, and Administrative Templates, Classic Administrative Templates (ADM), Custom, IE 9. Right-click on 'Pop-Up Blocker - Add Custom Sites to list'
   
8. Select Enabled and click Ok.
   
   
   

Done!

Reboot a user's computer and check to see if your custom sites have been added to the pop-up blocker allow list.



NOTE: If you need to update the list of allowed websites, you'll need to do the following:

1. Update your .adm file.
2. Disable the custom group policy setting.
3. Remove the .adm file from the Add/Remove template.
4. Add the new .adm file to the Add/Remove template.
5. Enable the custom group policy setting.