Apply font smoothing via Group Policy

If you want to apply font smoothing to your users and wish to ensure that everyone is getting the benefits of at least some level of font smoothing you can import this ADM template in to a group policy.

Check out GPAnswers.com for more ADM templates like this one, including one allowing you to disable mass storage drives via group policy.

This policy is only compatible with Windows XP! I have no idea what effect it will have on Windows 2000 systems!


;
; NAME:  FontSmoothing.adm
;
; DESCRIPTION: An ADM (Group Policy template) for applying font smoothing to users.
;
; CODED BY: Lewis Roberts
;

CLASS USER

CATEGORY "Font Smoothing"
  
  POLICY "Font Smoothing"
  EXPLAIN !!ExplainFontSmoothing
  KEYNAME "Control Panel\Desktop"
      VALUENAME "FontSmoothing"
      VALUEON  2
      VALUEOFF  0
    PART "Font Smoothing Type" DROPDOWNLIST REQUIRED
      VALUENAME "FontSmoothingType"
    ITEMLIST
      NAME ClearType    VALUE NUMERIC 2 DEFAULT
      NAME Standard    VALUE NUMERIC 1
    END ITEMLIST
    NOSORT
  END PART
  END POLICY
  
END CATEGORY

[STRINGS]
ExplainFontSmoothing=Select the font smoothing to apply to fonts.\nDisabled = No anti-aliasing applied\nStandard = Normal anti-aliasing applied\nClearType = Pixel sub-sampling anti-aliasing applied\n\nAfter this setting is applied, users will need to log off and back on to see the changes.

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4 Responses to Apply font smoothing via Group Policy

  1. ABC says:

    Doesn’t work, just appears as a folder

  2. Lewis says:

    Select Administrative Templates from the list then click the View menu > Filtering.
    De-select the “Only show policy settings that can be fully managed.” option.
    Click OK

    You should now be able to see the admin template and edit its settings. Don’t forget that this Administrative template will tattoo the registry with this setting, it is not automatically removed if you remove the user or computer account from the OU to which you are applying the Group policy that contains this Admin Template. The same rule applies if you are removing the Administrative Template from the Group Policy. You must set it back to the null option before removing the template from the policy, or the user/computer account from the OU to which the policy is applied.

    – Lewis

  3. ABC says:

    Ahh, gotcha. Brilliant stuff, this has been driving me mad, thanks very much for the help (and blisteringly fast response I might add!)

    Cheers

  4. Lewis says:

    No probs. Take a look at GPAnswers.com for other useful Admin Templates :)

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