site to zone assignment list greyed out

Stack Exchange Network

Stack Exchange network consists of 183 Q&A communities including Stack Overflow , the largest, most trusted online community for developers to learn, share their knowledge, and build their careers.

Q&A for work

Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search.

Internet Options to add Trusted Site Greyed Out - SysPreped Windows 10 LTSB

I just deployed an custom Windows 10 ISO I created and I can't set my local file server as a trusted site in internet options. The site button is greyed out. The only change I made in the image was adding the site pre-sysprep and now It not only didn't keep the settings through the sysprep process, but also locked me from making changes to internet options. I did test this image on another computer before adding the site pre-sysprep and post deploy I was able to add the site via normal methods. Clearly somehow adding the site to trusted sites before sysprepping the OS caused the issue. Unfortunatley, this is not an easy computer to re-deploy or I would just remake the ISO and re-deploy.

Update Re Comment [The Goal is to get RID of this Message]:

• I don't use IE or care about its "options", I just want to get rid of this nag message when I run an exe from my fileserver as almost all my software is installed on the server.

• Any idea how I can reset the settings to default?
• How can I add the site via RegEdit? I know I only need to add one site and I use the IP not DNS.

I know the keys are related to HKLM/SOFTWARE/Policies/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Internet settings/ , I'm thinking of exporting the entire "tree" from the other computer and importing it here, but that's a hassle as well as its not my computer.

Any ideas!? Thanks!

PS: Windows 10 LTSB v 1607 x64 -Up-2-date

Update: I had IE11 not installed, by installing it, Internet Options now look as they used to, but the option is still greyed out!

Update 2: I have "reset" IE Options, but still Grey :(

• internet-explorer
• internet-security

• I see the same photo. That registry key you mentioned shouldn’t exist at all if you don’t want policies enforced on your browser. Just delete it. Or rename it, if you want to see the effects. –  Appleoddity Mar 12, 2018 at 23:49
• I dont really care about IE, my goal is to stop the popup when I run an exe from my file server over SMB. So I'm not sure how to apply that to your comment lol –  FreeSoftwareServers Mar 12, 2018 at 23:51
• @Appleoddity I updated an image to explain just incase –  FreeSoftwareServers Mar 12, 2018 at 23:53
• Windows Explorer respects IE group policies. Are you an Administrator? –  Ramhound Mar 13, 2018 at 0:17
• I'm logged in as one, but I haven't messed much with Group Policy and I was under the impression sysprep generalize wouldn't keep group policy anyway. What GPO would I look at? –  FreeSoftwareServers Mar 13, 2018 at 0:20

3 Answers 3

The issue was that Group Policy was somehow blocking me from adding into IE Options like I'm used to.

You want to configure Group Policy like so:

Navigate to Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Internet Explorer\Internet Control Panel\Security Page >> Site to Zone Assignment List

The "Values" are as follows:

After configuration open CMD in Administrator mode and run the following:

Now reboot and test!

https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/1182041-gpo-for-local-intranet-site http://www.grouppolicy.biz/2010/03/how-to-use-group-policy-to-configure-internet-explorer-security-zone-sites/

This worked for me even though it's for Windows XP.

All credit to the original author.

FYI, my system specs are:

LINK: Sites" button and "Custom Level" slider are grayed out in Internet Options - Security tab

This is the contents of that site should it ever get taken down.

When you open Internet Options - Security tab and click on any Zone (except Internet Zone), the Sites button may be grayed out. As a result, you may be unable to add or remove a website to the specified Zone. Additionally, you may also notice that the Custom level slider is grayed out. This prevents you from customizing the Security level for that particular Zone.

The Flags value in the registry governs the above two options (and more) for each Zone. See Description of Internet Explorer security zones registry entries for more information on the Flags value.

To enable the Sites button and the Custom Level slider for that particular Zone, follow these steps:

Open Registry Editor (regedit.exe) and navigate to

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\Zones\{Zone ID}

Backup the key by exporting it to a REG file.

• In the right-pane, double-click Flags and click Decimal

Add 3 to the existing Value data

Example: If Flags value reads 0 (Decimal), set it to 3 (i.e., 0 + 1 + 2 )

Flags value listing (from MS-KB 182569 )

Close Registry Editor and restart your machine and follow the route in your OP.

For me, the apply button was greyed out but it works none the less.

The entry I have entered is file://PRINCE_NASEEM but yours will differ.

• Nice, this looks like it enables the menu operations I'm used to vs fixing via GPO. This would likely be the better fix for me to use before "Sysprepping" an image. –  FreeSoftwareServers Jun 10, 2019 at 9:07
• Thanks, I'm glad you found this useful. It's good because, if it works in win XP, then there's a good chance it works right up to win 10. –  Ste Jun 11, 2019 at 10:09

I answer late, but I have the same problem. I recovered the .reg on a pc which was not impacted.

Copy the code, insert it into a text file that you rename to .reg.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for browse other questions tagged security internet-explorer internet-security ., hot network questions.

• How do I snap the edges of hex tiles together?
• Why don't professors seem to use learning strategies like spaced repetition and note-taking?
• Sum of square roots (as an algebraic number)
• Why is killing even evil brahmins categorized as 'brahma hatya'?
• Why does the proposed Lunar Crater Radio Telescope suggest an optimal latitude of 20 degrees North?
• Science fiction book about a world where bioengineered animals are used for common functions
• Is obeying the parallelogram law of vector addition sufficient to make a physical quantity qualify as a vector?
• Can　近く modify an adjective to mean "almost adjective"?
• Handling cases of "potential" ChatGPT-generated reviews in non-anonymous program committees (as a PC member)
• Can LLMs have intention?
• A Fantasy story where a man appears to have been crushed on his wedding night by a statue on the finger of which he has put a wedding ring
• Does it make sense for giants to use clubs or swords when fighting non-giants?
• How to Adjust Comparator Output Voltage for Circuit to Work at 3.3V Instead of 5V?
• What terminal did David connect to his IMSAI 8080?
• Inductance after core saturation
• Clash between breakable tcolorbox with tikz externalize
• How do I tell which kit lens option is more all-purpose?
• Do we know how the SpaceX Starship stack handles engine shutdowns?
• Converting NEMA 10-30 to 14-30 using ground from adjacent 15 amp receptacle
• Best way to halve 12V battery voltage for 6V device, while still being able to measure the battery level?
• Can I travel with my child to the UK if I am not the person named in their visitor's visa?
• Moving after copying in assignment of conditional operator result
• Can I paraphrase an conference paper I wrote in my dissertation?
• Advice on DIY Adjusting Rheem Water Heater Thermostat

Managing Internet Explorer Trusted Sites with Group Policy

Internet Explorer Maintenance is dead. We all have our regrets, missed chances, and memories. But we have to move on. Depending on your love for power, you have two options. You can take the totalitarian route (known as Administrative Templates) or the benevolent method (known as Group Policy Preferences). Here are the two ways that you can configure Internet Explorer Trusted Sites with Group Policy.

Configuring IE Trusted Sites with Administrative Templates

Site to Zone Mapping allows you to configure trusted sites with Group Policy Administrative Templates. This setting can be found at:

• Computer Configuration/Policies/Administrative Templates/Windows Components/Internet Explorer / Internet Control Panel/Security Page/Site to Zone Assignment List
• User Configuration/Policies/Administrative Templates/Windows Components/Internet Explorer / Internet Control Panel/Security Page/Site to Zone Assignment List

When possible, use the computer configuration option as it will not impact user logons. When you enable the setting, you will be prompted for a value name (the website) and a value (the zone list). Here are the possible values and the zone that they correspond to:

• 1 = Intranet/Local Zone
• 2 = Trusted Sites
• 3 = Internet/Public Zone
• 4 = Restricted Sites

  The screenshot above shows one trusted site and one restricted site. There is a potential downside to managing trusted sites with Administrative Templates. You will not be able to edit the trusted sites list within Internet Explorer. If you have more than four items listed, you won’t be able to see the entire list in the IE Trusted Sites window. If you view the site properties (Alt – File – Properties), you can check a specific site’s zone though. Remember this trick as it will help you when troubleshooting! You can view the entire list in the Registry by navigating to HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\ZoneMap\Domains. If you are an administrator, you can edit/add/remote items from this list for testing. Just be sure to run a GPUpdate /force to undo your changes.

Bonus Points : Leave a comment below explaining why a GPUpdate /force is required to undo your changes. Super Bonus Points if you answer in a haiku.

Configuring IE Trusted Sites with Group Policy Preferences Registry

You would think that Group Policy Preferences Internet Settings could set trusted sites. Unfortunately, that setting is greyed out.

You can still configure IE site mappings with Group Policy Registry Preferences though.* The benefit of this is that your users can edit the zone lists and view all of the added sites. To set this up, create a new user side registry preference. This trick will not work under computer configuration. Enter in the following details:

• Keypath: Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\ZoneMap\Domains\WEBSITENAME
• Value Name: http
• Value Type: REG_DWORD
• Value Data: 2

Here is an example showing DeployHappiness being set as a trusted site with registry preferences:

If your site isn’t being placed in the Trusted Sites list, add it manually and then navigate to the registry location above. Ensure that the manual addition exactly matches your registry preference. You will also need to ensure that no Administrative Template Site to Zone settings are applied. If they are, they will wipe out your preference settings. Remember that Policies always win!

You can search your domain for site to zone settings by using this Group Policy Search script. Alan Burchill taught me this trick.

To see additional ways to configure site to zone mappings, read this very in depth example guide.

24 thoughts on “ Managing Internet Explorer Trusted Sites with Group Policy ”

I hope to replace our Site to Zone list to allow our users to enter their own in but I am not sure how to enter our entries that don’t specify a specific protocal such as http or https. So can someone tell me how I would create an entry for this:

*://*.sharepoint.com

and what about something like this – how would this be entered?

https://192.192.192.192 .:9443 (example only)

As for your first question, this info should help: https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/326140-add-trusted-sites-via-gpo-but-still-allow-users-to-add-trusted-sites?page=1#entry-2849140

As for the second question, I don’t know of a way to handle ports. In reference to your example, a link like that would be entered like this: *://192.192.192.192

This is excellent – I have used the GP preferences to add trused sites without locking users out of the setting if they need to add a site. But what about this – a program in the startup group – it is a shortcut to a file on a server – a member server of the local domain – domain.local. I want to prevent this program from prompting end-users to run it, and make sure it will run without prompting. Can this be accomplished with a GP preference as well? If so, do I need to add it to trusted sites, or to the local intranet zone or local machine zone? It would seem to be a local intranet or local machine zone I am working with here. I am not sure how to add it – whether I just need to add the local domain, or the computer name FQDN, or the path to the shared folder and the file. thanks!

This sounds like two different problems: 1. How do I get an app to run without prompting? 2. How do I make it run on startup with group policy?

The latter is easy, create it as a scheduled task that runs on startup. The former depends on what type of script it is. If it’s a vbscript then run it with cscript /b “name.vbs”.

With the old approach we had a file under trusted sites to allow the file to run. It has stopped working under 2012. Could I use this with a file? The old setting was:

file:\\Domain.com\netlogon\AsmallExe.exe

See this article on what you can configure with trusted sites: http://evilgpo.blogspot.com/2016/03/internet-explorer-site-to-zone.html

Just the ticket. Thanks a lot.

I have double-checked that the site to zone assignment policy is not configured, both under user and computer settings. We used group policy preferences because we do not want to lock down the trusted sites – only to push out the sites we want to be trusted. But for some absurd reason, the trusted sites are locked down and greyed out half the time – one day I will look and the sites are not dimmed out and will let me add or remove them. Then the next day they will be greyed out again. It is amazingly ridiculous. I am the only admin; no one else knows how to mess with the settings even if they had the admin credentials. So I have no clue why it keeps reverting back to the wrong settings. I thing our active directory needs to have dcdiag run on it a few times. Any ideas will be sincerely appreciated.

If it is locked down, it is a GP policy that is doing it (the site to zone assignment one) or a registry key that is enabling that site to zone assignment.

When you see one that does it, run a GPResult /h report.htm /f and look through that report.htm. You will see any GP settings that would block it then.

A reply to my own post – the problem was corrupted group policy on the Windows 7 computers – some of the computers were working fine. The ones that were not working, we had to delete the corrupt policy (it was preventing the updated policy settings from being applied). It was in the path C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Group Policy\History\{policy GUID}. After deleting the corrupt policy and rebooting, it fixed the problem!

Thanks for the update Sam!

You’re welcome! I am still having some issues with the trusted sites being greyed out in IE, even though I made certain not to use site to zone assignment in the policy, and only used GP preferences to add registry items for the sites in the trusted zone. Do you know what registry key I need to be looking for, that might be causing this issue?

Many thanks! Sam S.

Are you making sure that you’re applying it under HKCU, and not under HKLM? If you configure it under HKCU, users will still have the ability to add their own entries. But if you configure it under HKLM, the option to add entries will be greyed out.

Yes, I definitely deployed the preferences under the Users GP Preferences and not computer policy/preferences. However, there are some policy settings that I set in both computer and user settings in the GPO. None of these are site to zone assignments though. These settings are for all the security settings within the zones, like, download signed activeX controls – enable, download unsigned activeX controls, Prompt… etc.. – these settings are set in the computer policy and the user policy which is probably what is wrong. I should probably just disable the computer policies in the GPO. I will try that and see if it helps. Why are all these settings available in the computer side and the user side both? Is there a reason someone would set these settings in one policy over the other?

A computer side policy is available for every user that logs in already. These are generally faster to apply and are my preferred way to configure something. However, times like this are when a user side policy would be the best route for you. Remove the computer side settings and try John’s suggestions. Let us know what you find out.

Sam, another thing you can try is to access the GPO from a Windows 7 workstation running IE 9 (and make sure that there are no current Internet Explorer policies being applied to the workstation; put it in an OU that is blocking inheritance if you have to), then drill down to “User Config\Policies\Windows Settings\Internet Explorer Maintenance\Security\Security Zones and Content Ratings”. Double-click on “Security Zones and Content Ratings”, then choose “Import…” under “Security Zones and Privacy’, click “Continue” when prompted, then click “Modify Settings, then “Trusted Sites”, then the “Sites” button. You can then make whatever changes you want (add a site, remove a site, remove the check from the https box, etc). This should give you the freedom you’re looking for :).

i`ve add multiple Sites to the Site to Zone assigment list (Trusted Sites). After a new logon, i`ve check my settings, start IE11, visit the site i`ve add to the list, press Alt – File – Properties and check the Zone. Some of the sites are correct, shown in the trusted site zone, some of them not, they are in an unkown zone (mixed). I want to check the registry path Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\ZoneMap\Domains but this key is empty, for HKLM and HKCU. What`s wrong?

Thanks and Regards Patrick

Are you deploying the trusted sites with Policies or registry preferences?

> comment below explaining why GPUpdate /force is required to undo your changes.

For Group Policy to apply efficiently changes trigger it.

Exceptions apply. GPUPDate force is one. Security too.

Less obtusely said: “Group Policy will normally only reprocess client side extensions that have at least one policy element that changed. The exceptions to this are Security Option settings which reapply every ~16 hours on most machines and every 5 minutes on Domain Controllers. The other exceptions are when you run a gpupdate /force, and any CSEs you configure to auto-reapply. You can view this decision tree by enabling UserEnv logging as described in http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc775423%28v=ws.10%29.aspx ” … But not as haiku.

Hi, Is it possible to select the users you want that this GPO applies? It is because I need to add a web to trusted sites, but only to two users. Any idea?

You would need to configure these settings under user configuration. Then change the scope of the GPO from authenticated users to a group containing those two users.

With regards to deploying trusted sites via GPO, while allowing users to add their own entries, see if this post helps: http://community.spiceworks.com/topic/post/2849140

I’m finding that when I deploy Trusted Sites using GPP and the registry, users aren’t able to add entries themselves (it allows them to add to the list, but the entries don’t stick and are gone as soon as you reopen the dialog). Any ideas?

You sir, have a good last name! 🙂

Do you have any delete preferences configured to that registry key? If you manually browse to that key, do you see what the user added?

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

• Security Essentials
• Deploying Windows 10 (without touching a client)
• Group Policy – Preferences to Software and Everything In Between
• OneNote Can Centralize Your Documentation
• Lunch and Learn: PowerShell 3
• Lunch and Learn: Software Extraction
• Disclosure Policy
• Privacy Policy
• Rebuild the Administrative Start Menu
• Guest Posting
• What’s This? Q&A on Sponsored Posts
• Blogs that I Follow – 2018 Edition
• Books to Boost Your Career!
• Top Articles to Teach You Now!
• Top Gadgets to be more Productive!
• Software Tools
• Other – eBooks, Virtual labs, etc
• My Articles
• Clients and Desktops
• Group Policy
• Deployment/MDT
• About DeployHappiness
• February 2024
• October 2023
• January 2023
• October 2021
• November 2020
• October 2020
• February 2020
• January 2020
• November 2019
• October 2019
• February 2019
• January 2019
• December 2018
• November 2018
• October 2018
• August 2018
• February 2018
• January 2018
• December 2017
• October 2017
• September 2017
• August 2017
• February 2017
• January 2017
• October 2016
• September 2016
• August 2016
• February 2016
• January 2016
• December 2015
• October 2015
• September 2015
• August 2015
• February 2015
• January 2015
• December 2014
• November 2014
• October 2014
• September 2014
• August 2014
• February 2014
• January 2014
• December 2013
• November 2013
• October 2013
• September 2013
• August 2013
• Group Policy (85)
• Best Practice (90)
• Hardware (9)
• Management (100)
• Networking (3)
• Office 365 (8)
• Performance (23)
• Quick Tip (26)
• PowerShell (87)
• Security (28)
• Server (16)
• Thinking about IT (14)
• Training (6)
• TroubleShooting (36)
• Uncategorized (29)
• Walkthrough (109)
• Entries (RSS)
• Comments (RSS)

Stack Exchange Network

Stack Exchange network consists of 183 Q&A communities including Stack Overflow , the largest, most trusted online community for developers to learn, share their knowledge, and build their careers.

Q&A for work

Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search.

Why is SiteToZoneAssignment GPO applying, but sites not appearing in IE

We have a Windows server 2012 R2 remote desktop farm, which we have applied a GPO to, to control site to zone assignments.

This was working fine up until recently, but just lately, we have found that this setting is not applying.

If I toggle ESC on, and then back off on the server I am on, the sites now show up in IE zone list for the currently logged in user. It does not however, seem to apply to all users. That list of sites will then follow them to other servers and that user will be ok moving forward.

We use user profile disks, so the users registry hive is not available on that server unless they are logged in, which might explain why it only occurs for the logged in test user.

EDIT : I can see the registry entries being created under HKCU ZoneMapKey and HKLM ZoneMap.

According to this article, IE should read settings from both of those locations, but they simply do not appear in the site list in IE control panel.

Is it possible that there has been an update for 2012 that has altered some ESC registry setting that causes us this issue?

• group-policy
• windows-server-2012-r2
• internet-explorer
• remote-desktop-services
• windows-update

• Check the zone assignment in the registry, IE ignore esc zone assignment if you have normal zone assignment. –  yagmoth555 ♦ Jul 7, 2016 at 11:59
• I have applied the settings under the computer settings in the policy. If I look in HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\ZoneMapKey, I can see all of the entries, they just don't show up in IE itself –  James Edmonds Jul 7, 2016 at 13:35
• But ESC is not enabled! –  James Edmonds Jul 7, 2016 at 13:49
• I would try HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FeatureControl\FEATURE_IGNORE_POLICIES_ZONEMAP_IF_ESC_ENABLED_KB918915\ to 1 anyhow, it's for fixing a bug when ZoneMap is done and ESC is on/off. –  yagmoth555 ♦ Jul 7, 2016 at 13:52
• It's tagged for Win2003, but the registry fix work in 2012; support.microsoft.com/en-gb/kb/918915 , they tell HKLM to fix it for all user, or it work too like you told in HCU –  yagmoth555 ♦ Jul 7, 2016 at 14:11

3 Answers 3

I created a new user account, and when logged on for the first time, it too experienced the same issue with sites not showing in IE, even though the GPO was applied.

I found in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\ZoneMap , there is a key called IEHarden (remembered the name back from my 2003 days with a similar ESC kind of issue). It looks like even though the server has ESC turned off, this key is set to 1. When either deleting, or setting this to 0, the sites immediately appear in internet control panel, and works as expected.

So while I know what is causing the problem, and have enough to fudge a workaround by deleting that key for each user on login, I still don't understand why that key is set to 1, or even exists in the first place (some users who could see the sites already, don't even have that key!). Again I can only come back to an update that has messed with IE ESC in some way.

Now have the full answer;

Two of our 8 session host created profiles with the IEHarden key, while the others did not (these two were setup by our consultants, although after asking them they are clueless).

Seems under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Terminal Server\Install\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\ZoneMap the IEHarden key existed, so was being given to all new profiles created on that server.

Deleted the key from both, and all now back to normal!

Thanks James for posting the info. For anyone who faces this issue the key to look for is:

• Curious about your environment. The OPs info and references solved my related issues. But the key you're describing doesn't exist in my 2012-R2 servers. –  bvj Feb 15, 2018 at 8:14

Besides IEHarden under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\ZoneMap I had in my company also to set IsInstalled at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Active Setup\Installed Components\{A509B1A8-37EF-4b3f-8CFC-4F3A74704073} to dword:00000000 .

These two registry settings did fully resolve the issue for us. Before IEHarden was somehow set after a certain time back to 1.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for browse other questions tagged group-policy windows-server-2012-r2 internet-explorer remote-desktop-services windows-update ., hot network questions.

• Why is killing even evil brahmins categorized as 'brahma hatya'?
• A Fantasy story where a man appears to have been crushed on his wedding night by a statue on the finger of which he has put a wedding ring
• Is the barrier to entry for mathematics research increasing, and is it at risk of becoming less accessible in the future?
• A man is kidnapped by his future descendants and isolated his whole life to prevent a bad thing; they accidentally undo their own births
• How can I use a router without gateway?
• A trigonometric equation: how hard could it be?
• Why is the Mean Value Theorem called "Gauss's"?
• How do you keep the horror spooky when your players are a bunch of goofballs?
• Calculation of centrifugal liquid propellant injectors
• My players think they found a loophole that gives them infinite poison and XP. How can I add the proper challenges to slow them down?
• Application of Lie group analysis of PDE (beyond calculation of exact solutions)
• Has ever a country by its own volition refused to join United Nations, or those which havent joined it's because they aren't recognized as such by UN?
• An application of the (100/e)% rule applied to postdocs: moving on from an academic career, perhaps
• Markov Chains with Changing Number of States
• What terminal did David connect to his IMSAI 8080?
• Best quantitative version of open mapping theorem in complex analysis
• Are there any jobs that are forbidden by law to convicted felons?
• Can LLMs have intention?
• Science fiction book about a world where bioengineered animals are used for common functions
• Does retirement (pre-Full Retirement Age) qualify for a special enrollment period for the affordable care act?
• Best way to halve 12V battery voltage for 6V device, while still being able to measure the battery level?
• Find characters common among all strings
• What is the U.N. list of shame and how does it affect Israel which was recently added?
• What legal reason, if any, does my bank have to know if I am a dual citizen of the US?

a blog by Sander Berkouwer

• The things that are better left unspoken

HOWTO: Add the required Hybrid Identity URLs to the Local Intranet list of Internet Explorer and Edge

Most Microsoft-based Hybrid Identity implementations use Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS) Servers, Web Application Proxies and Azure AD Connect installations. In this series, labeled Hardening Hybrid Identity , we’re looking at hardening these implementations, using recommended practices.

In this part of the series, we’ll look at the required Hybrid Identity URLs that you want to add to the Intranet Sites list in Internet Explorer.

Note: This is the first part for adding Microsoft Cloud URLs to Internet Explorer’s zone. In this part we look at the Local Intranet zone. In the next part we look at the Trusted Sites zone.

Note: Adding URLs to the Local Intranet zone for Internet Explorer, also applies to Microsoft Edge.

Why look at the Intranet Sites?

Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS), and certain functionality in Azure Active Directory leverage Windows Integrated Authentication to allow for Single Sign-on. (SSO).

Single Sign-on reduces prompt fatigue in people and thus makes them more aware of the moments when password prompts happen and (and this is the theory…) paying more attention to what they are doing with their passwords.

I’m not a psychologist, but I do know how to make Windows Integrated Authentication work with Internet Explorer.

Intranet Sites vs. Trusted Sites (with Default settings)

Internet Explorer offers built-in zones:

• Local intranet
• Trusted sites
• Restricted sites

Per zone, Internet Explorer is allowed specific functionality. Restricted Sites is the most restricted zone and Internet Explorer deploys the maximum safeguards and fewer secure features (like Windows Integrated Authentication) are enabled.

The Local intranet zone, by default, offers a medium-low level of security, where Trusted sites allows for medium-level security. By default, the Local intranet zone allows for the following functionality beyond the Trusted sites zone:

• Local intranet does not allow ActiveX Filtering
• Local intranet allows Scriptlets
• Local intranet allows accessing data sources across domains (Trusted sites prompt)
• Local intranet allows scripting of Microsoft web browser control
• Sites in the Local intranet zone don’t prompt for client certificate selection when only one certificate exists
• Sites in the Local intranet zone may launch applications and unsafe files
• Sites in the Local intranet zone may navigate windows and frames across different domains
• Local intranet sites do not use the Pop-up Blocker feature
• Local intranet sites do not use the Defender SmartScreen feature
• Local intranet sites allow programmatic clipboard access
• Local intranet sites do not use the XSS Filter feature
• Local intranet sites allow user authentication

Possible negative impact (What could go wrong?)

Internet Explorer’s zones are defined with specific default settings to lower the security features for websites added to these zones.

When you use a Group Policy object to add websites that don’t need the functionality of the Local intranet zone to the zone, the systems in scope for the Group Policy object are opened up to these websites. This may result in unwanted behavior of the browser such as browser hijacks, identity theft and remote code executions.

While this does not represent a clear and immediate danger, it is a situation to avoid.

Getting ready

The best way to manage Internet Explorer zones is to use Group Policy.

To create a Group Policy object, manage settings for the Group Policy object and link it to an Organizational Unit, Active Directory site and/or Active Directory domain, log into a system with the Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) installed with an account that is either:

• A member of the Domain Admins group, or;
• The current owner of the Group Policy Object, and have the Link GPOs permission on the Organizational Unit(s), Site(s) and/or Domain(s) where the Group Policy Object is to be linked, or;
• Delegated the Edit Settings or Edit settings, delete and modify security permission on the GPO, and have the Link GPOs permission on the Organizational Unit(s), Site(s) and/or Domain(s) where the Group Policy Object is to be linked.

The URLs to add

You’ll want to add the following URLs to the Local intranet zone, depending on the way you’ve setup your Hybrid Identity implementation:

https:// <YourADFSFarmName>

When you use federation with Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS), the URL for the AD FS Farm needs to be added to the Local Intranet zone. As AD FS is authenticated against, it need to be added to the Local intranet zone as, by default, this is the only zone for websites to allow for user authentication.

https://login.microsoftonline.com

Https://secure.aadcdn.microsoftonline-p.com.

The https://login.microsoftonline.com and https://secure.aadcdn.microsoftonline-p.com URLs are the main URLs for authenticating to Microsoft cloud services. As these URLs are used to authenticate against, they need to be added to the Local intranet zone as, by default, this is the only zone for websites to allow for user authentication.

https://aadg.windows.net.nsatc.net

• https://autologon.microsoftazuread-sso.com

If you use the Seamless Single Sign-On (3SO) feature in Azure AD Connect, then you’ll want to add the following URLS to the Local intranet zone:

• https://aadg.windows.net.nsatc.net and

These URLs need to be added to the Local intranet zone on all devices where people in the organization use the 3SO feature, as these are the URLs where they will authenticate against. Trusted sites, by default, do not allow this functionality.

If you don’t use the 3SO functionality, don’t add the above URLs.

https://account.activedirectory.windowsazure.com

It is still one of Microsoft’s recommendation to add the https://account.activedirectory.windowsazure.com URL to the Local intranet zone. However, an enhanced experience is available that no longer points employees to this URL, but instead to the https://myprofile.microsoft.com URL, that uses the normal authentication URLs.

The new enhanced experience is available in the Azure portal, under User settings , Manage user feature preview settings (in the User feature previews area) named Users can use preview features for registering and managing security info – enhanced .

If you’ve enabled the enhanced preview, don’t add the above URL.

How to add the URLs to the Local Intranet zone

To add the URLs to the Local Intranet zone, perform these steps:

• Log into a system with the Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) installed.
• Open the Group Policy Management Console ( gpmc.msc )
• In the left pane, navigate to the Group Policy objects node.
• Locate the Group Policy Object that you want to use and select it, or right-click the Group Policy Objects node and select New from the menu.
• Right-click the Group Policy object and select Edit… from the menu. The Group Policy Management Editor window appears.
• In the main pane of the Group Policy Management Editor window, expand the Computer Configuration node, then Policies , Administrative Templates , Windows Components , Internet Explorer , Internet Control Panel and then the Security Page node.

• In the main pane, double-click the Sites to Zone Assignment List setting.
• Enable the Group Policy setting by selecting the Enabled option in the top pane.
• Click the Show… button in the left pane. The Show Contents window appears.

• Add the above URLs to the Local Intranet zone by entering the URL in the Value name column and the number 1 in the Value column for each of the URLs.
• Click OK when done.
• Close the Group Policy Editor window.
• In the left navigation pane of the Group Policy Management Console, navigate to the Organization Unit (OU) where you want to link the Group Policy object.
• Right-click the OU and select Link an existing GPO… from the menu.
• In the Select GPO window, select the GPO.
• Click OK to link the GPO.

Repeat the last three steps to link the GPO to all OUs that require it. Take Block Inheritance into account for OUs by linking the GPO specifically to include all people in scope.

To enable functionality in a Hybrid Identity implementation, we need to open up the web browser to allow functionality for specific web addresses. By enabling the right URLs we minimize our efforts in enabling the functionality and also minimize the negative effect on browser security.

There is no need to add all the URLs to specific Internet Explorer zones, when you don’t need to functionality. However, do not forget to add the specific URLs when you enable specific functionality like Seamless Single Sign-on and remove specific URLs when you move away from specific functionality.

Further reading

Office 365 URLs and IP address ranges Group Policy – Internet Explorer Security Zones Add Site to Local Intranet Zone Group Policy

Posted on October 15, 2019 by Sander Berkouwer in Active Directory , Entra ID , Security

5 Responses to HOWTO: Add the required Hybrid Identity URLs to the Local Intranet list of Internet Explorer and Edge

If you use the GPO methode (S2ZAL) the zone get's 'locked' so the user cannot add url's to the zone himself. If you want them to allow this ( yeah i know this shoudln't be 🙂 ) you can use a reg import with GPO Preferences instead.

Yes, indeed you can.

Very well done and written! I've only just begun writing myself just recently and realized that a lot of blogs merely rework old content but add very little of worth. It's good to see a beneficial post of some true valuue to your readers and I. It is actually going down on the list of things I need to emulate being a nnew blogger. Visitor engagement and content quality are king. Many great ideas; you've unquestionably made it on my list of sites to follow!

Continue the great work!

it's done,work fine,thanks you

Nice detail, well explained. Good work.

leave your comment cancel

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .

Advertisement

Search this site

Dirteam.com / activedir.org blogs.

• Strategy and Stuff
• Dave Stork's IMHO
• The way I did it
• Sergio's Shack
• Things I do
• Tomek's DS World

Microsoft MVP (2009-2024)

Veeam vanguard (2016-2024), vmware vexpert (2019-2022).

Xcitium Security MVP (2023)

Recent Posts

• What's New in Entra ID for May 2024
• On-premises Identity-related updates and fixes for May 2024
• Four vulnerabilities in Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager were addressed in v12.1.2.172
• A Denial of Service vulnerability threatens the availability of virtual Domain Controllers on VMware ESXi (VMSA-2024-0011, Important, CVE-2024-22273)
• I’m co-presenting a session at Experts Live Netherlands 2024

Recent Comments

• Kaper on KnowledgeBase: You experience errors with Event ID 14 and source Kerberos-Key-Distribution-Center on Domain Controllers
• Sander Berkouwer on TODO: Upgrade the Certificates for your Windows Server 2016-based Domain Controllers (and up) to enable Windows Hello for Business Hybrid Scenarios
• Alexis Belanger on TODO: Upgrade the Certificates for your Windows Server 2016-based Domain Controllers (and up) to enable Windows Hello for Business Hybrid Scenarios
• Daniel Adeniji on HOWTO: Detect NTLMv1 Authentication
• Sander Berkouwer on KnowledgeBase: App Passwords are only available to users with a non-Conditional Access MFA requirement

The information on this website is provided for informational purposes only and the authors make no warranties, either express or implied. Information in these documents, including URL and other Internet Web site references, is subject to change without notice. The entire risk of the use or the results from the use of this document remains with the user. Active Directory, Microsoft, MS-DOS, Windows, Windows NT, and Windows Server are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

How To Add Sites to Internet Explorer Restricted Zone

In this post we will see the steps on how to add sites to Internet Explorer restricted zone.

To configure Internet Explorer security zones there are multiple ways to do it, in this post we will configure a group policy for the users and use Site to Zone assignment list policy setting to add the websites or URL to the restricted site zone.

This policy setting allows you to manage a list of sites that you want to associate with a particular security zone. Internet Explorer has 4 security zones, numbered 1-4, and these are used by this policy setting to associate sites to zones.

• Intranet zone
• Trusted Sites zone
• Internet zone
• Restricted Sites zone

The zone numbers have associated security settings that apply to all of the sites in the zone. Using the Site to Zone assignment list policy setting we will see how to add sites to the Internet Explorer restricted zone.

Please note that Site to Zone Assignment List policy setting is available for both Computer Configuration and User Configuration.

Launch the Group Policy Management Tool, right click on the domain and create a new group policy. Right the policy and click Edit .

In the Group Policy Management Editor navigate to User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Internet Explorer > Internet Control Panel > Security Page.

If you want to apply the group policy for the computers then navigate to – Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Internet Explore r >  Internet Control Panel > Security Page.

On the right hand side, right click the policy setting Site to Zone Assignment List and click Edit .

Click Enabled first and then under the Options click Show .  You need to enter the zone assignments. As stated earlier in this post Internet Explorer has 4 security zones and the zone numbers have associated security settings that apply to all of the sites in the zone.

We will be adding a URL to the Restricted Sites Zone . So enter the value name as the site URL that to Restricted Sites zone and enter the value as 4 . Click OK and close the Group Policy Management Editor.

We will be applying the group policy to a group that consists of users. In the Security Filtering section, click Add and select the group .

Login to the client computer and launch the Internet Explorer . Click on Tools > Internet Options > Security Tab > Restricted Sites > Click Sites .

Notice that the URL is added to the Restricted Sites zone and user cannot remove it from the list.

Sign Up For Newsletter

Join our newsletter to stay updated and receive all the top articles published on the site get the latest articles delivered straight to your inbox..

Good article Prajwal .Detailed Explanation on how to add sites to internet explorer restricted zone .Keep it up .I seen your videos also in YouTube its really great.Thanks for sharing this info.

Hi Prajwal, Thank you for your article. Is there any way to block sites in all browsers.

Block all sites ?. Why would you do that ?.

I think you misunderstood the user’s question. The user was asking if there was a way to block any particular website in ALL browsers. Not just Internet Explorer.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

PatchMyPC Sponsored AD

Recast Sponsored AD

Popular Articles

SCCM 2012 R2 Step by Step Guide

How To Deploy Software Updates Using SCCM ConfigMgr

How to Install WSUS for SCCM | SUP Role | ConfigMgr

Fix Skype for Business Recording Shows Pending Status

Recent articles.

Download and Install Windows Server 2025

Use CMPivot Query to Find BIOS Details in SCCM

Create Intune Endpoint detection and response policy

SCCM Upgrade is blocked on Windows Server 2012/2012 R2

Subscribe Newsletter

Subscribe to our newsletter to get our newest articles instantly!

Group Policy Central

News, Tips and Tutorials for all your Group Policy needss

How to use Group Policy to configure Internet Explorer security zone sites

As you know Group Policy Preferences are these fantastic new settings that allow IT administrators perform any configuration they want on a users group using Group Policy… well almost..  In this tutorial I will show you how to configured one of the few settings that are not controlled by preferences but can be configured using a native Group Policy.

The Internet Explore site zone assignment is one of the few settings you specifically can’t configured using preferences, as you can see (image below) the User Interface to this options has been disabled.

There is a native Group Policy that allows you to control Internet Explorer site zone list is called “Site to Zone Assignment List” which I will go thought below how to use.

Step 1. Edit the Group Policy Object that is targeted to the users you whish this setting to be applied.

Step 2 . Navigate to User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Internet Explorer > Internet Control Panel > Security Page and double click on the “Site to Zone Assignment List” and check the “Enable” option then click on the “Show..” button.

Step 3.   Now type the URL in the “Value name” field with the >* on the far left and then type the zone number (see table below) you want to assign to that zone.

Internet Explorer Group Policy Zone Number Mapping

As soon as you start typing the URL a new line will appear for the next URL.

Step 4. One you have finished assigning adding the URL’s and site zone number click OK

Tip: If you want to delete a row click on the button on the far left to select the row you want to delete (see image below) and then press the “Delete” key.

(sites in above list are example only)

Now the Internet Explorer Site zone list will now be populated with the zone you configured above and as you can see in the images below the Internet Explorer status bar now show the correct zone based on the that the URL’s in the address bar.

Author: Alan Burchill

Related articles.

34 thoughts on “ How to use Group Policy to configure Internet Explorer security zone sites ”

Blog Post: How to use Group Policy to configure Internet Explorer security zone sites http://bit.ly/bNHowK

How to use Group Policy to configure Internet Explorer security zone sites http://bit.ly/bNHowK

• Pingback: Group Policy Center » Blog Archive » Group Policy Setting of the Week 18 – Allow file downlaod (Internet Explorer)
• Pingback: Group Policy Center » Blog Archive » How to use Group Policy to mitigate security issue KB981374

Yup, that is right and excately how we do it, however there is one problem that is of slight concern 🙁

Once the Zones are set via this GP the user can not add his own and as banks etc. today rely on Trusted Zones this is a slight problem. Our IT policy allow for users to use their PC for personal business as well as work and thus it is a slight problem that they cant add Zones for eg. their bank etc.

I have been thinking, maybe one could make a script to set Zones and deploy this via SCCM 2007.

I have not tried this for a while but i believe you can still do this if you configure it under the Internet Explorer Maintainence section of Group Policy…

The configuration for regular zones works fine. Bu the real pain starts when trying to cover zones for “Enahanced Security Configuration” which require other hives in the registry (e.g. “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\ZoneMap\ESCDomains\MyDomain”). I have not seen a Microsoft solution for that so far. If anybody knows a smart solution and would share it, I’d really appreciate that.

You will not have to resort to a script and SCCM. Contrary to what this blog entry says can’t be done, we do use GPP to set sites into speicfic security zones. But we don’t set it as a GPP Internet Setting. We use GPP to assign the sites to their proper zones in HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\ZoneMap\Domains. Doing it this way we configure the sites we need configured for the organization but do not block the users’ ability to add sites they need set for their individual machines.

Ditto. This was my conclusion a few years ago when researching the various IE management methods. Have been scripting the site/zone assignment manually since then. Primarily with GPP which is fairly simple to manage Colin

GPP is server 2008 only and requires client side software correct? Anyway to do achieve the same results (managed IE Zones without disabling user access) in a 2003 AD environment?

Is there somebody who know how to do the same but with Cookies ?

Because of that, I still have to use IEM which sucks…

@AdamFowler_IT this is how you do IE zones http://t.co/uKug8h9h /cc @auteched

@alanburchill @auteched Worth noting that IE zones via this method http://t.co/qiaLSFK7 will wipe out settings from the old method!!!

with this GPO can we block all internet traffic except google and some other sites to users in the domain??

• Pingback: Best Practice: Roaming Profiles and Folder Redirection (a.k.a. User State Virtualization) : The Digital Jedi's Blog

If I understand GPOs properly, configuring this policy setting will centrally manage this setting without allowing the user to add/delete/modify any of the site to zone settings. Wouldn’t it be preferable to configure these directly in the user’s registry by use of “Preference” registry settings? I.e. creating records in “User Configuration\Preferences\Windows Settings\Registry”.

Hi, Quick question. Is it possible to have multiple sites assigned to “Intranet Zone”? If I try and add additional sites with the same zone number it states that this is not allowed. Can the links be broken up with ; , or something similar? Thanks,

you add each url in separate lines and repeat the zone number code on the right as many times in the list as you like for that zone. Each url will appear listed in that zone then.

I have a question, when you apply this group policy, users cannot add trusted website anymore by themselves. Did you know how to manage that ?

For those trying to find the answer for the above this post may be useful: http://blog.thesysadmins.co.uk/group-policy-internet-explorer-security-zones.html

It covers two methods. The first method will remove the option for the end user to edit or change the security zones, the second will allow the user to add or remove sites.

• Pingback: How to configure Roaming Profiles and Folder Redirection
• Pingback: genuine uggs

Is there a trick to copy/pasting in multiple Value names at once? I have like 100+ IP addresses to insert… Do I have to enter them in 1 at a time?!?

I found this extremely helpful and thank you for posting this. However, for some reason, on my PC when I test the GPO, my trusted sites are affected by the GPO but the only thing that happens is that I can no longer add them; the list is empty. I added about 10 sites to the list using the method above but they are not showing up. I checked to make sure the policy was being applied correctly and it is being applied; it is making it impossible to add to my trusted sites, but the list is empty. With IE 9, the GPO would do the opposite, it would add the sites but the end-user could still add more. I used IEAK for IE 9 years ago and never had a problem, but when I installed IEAK 10 or 11, it never worked.

OK, never mind! To answer my own question, in IE 10, it no longer displays the security zone on the status bar, which stinks, but one can right-click + properties (in an empty space in the body of the webpage) and it will tell the zone you are in. Looks like the zones I added are at least showing in trusted sites. That is good enough for me I guess. Thanks for the original post once again!

I too miss the security bar on IE 10. Will be interesting to review the browser user growths next year.

any news on the copying and pasting I have 100 ips to add need help with the distribution T

Computer specialists are often called IT experts/ advisors or business development advisors, and the division of a corporation or institution of higher education that deals with software technology is often called the IT sector. Countless IT service providers such as The Roots International are offering different facilities like real estate, IT solutions and many more.

I think I have a weird question/request. I want to include my whole domain such as http://www.domain.com as a trusted site. Although, I want to exclude a single web page such as http://www.my.domain.com .

I have *www.domain.com, can http://www.my.domain.com be excluded in any way?

Well, it will provide the internet user user better experience to use internet and surfing websites through internet explorer.

Invaluable discussion ! Coincidentally , if your company has been searching for a a form , my business discovered a blank version here http://goo.gl/eJ3ETg

دم شما گرم.

• Pingback: Allow Previously Unused ActiveX Controls To Run Without Prompt - PC Moment
• Pingback: Internet Options to add Trusted Site Greyed Out - SysPreped Windows 10 LTSB - Boot Panic

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Site sponsor, featured post.

Popular Posts

• Best Practice (40)
• Group Policy FAQ (3)
• KB Focus (5)
• Other Site Links (15)
• Podcast (2)
• ScreenCast (4)
• Security (33)
• Setting of the Week (41)
• Site News (19)
• TechEd (35)
• Tutorials (117)
• Uncategorized (6)
• RSS - Posts
• RSS - Comments

Get the Reddit app

A reddit dedicated to the profession of Computer System Administration.

Group Policy Issue (Trusted Sites)

Hello to my favourite subreddit

I ran into something I don't know how to fix. We have a new Citrix Xendesktop 7.1 server farm that we want to set a group policy to apply Trusted Sites in IE for each user. I have added a GPO linked to the Citrix OU which contains the Citrix servers AND security groups for Citrix access (these have all the Xendesktop users in them).

I can tell the GPO is applying to the users because the Trusted Sites option is greyed out when enabled (users can't add any of their own sites, expected behaviour) but none of the sites I configured show up in their list. When I disable the policy, the Trusted Sites box is no longer greyed out (proving it IS applying, just incorrectly). I have rebuilt this policy twice with no improvement in the results.

Here is the policy I configured:

Computer Configuration - Administrative Templates - Windows Components - Internet Explorer - Internet Control Panel - Security Page - Site To Zone Assignment List

I added a couple test sites with a value of "2" for trusted sites.

Server OS is Windows Server 2012.

Troubleshooting I have already performed:

Made sure users had read and apply permissions on policy.

gpupdate /force

gpresult /h gpresult(1-100000 times).html - policy doesn't appear in applied or denied policies (could it be because it's a computer policy and the user doesn't have permission to see all of the computer policies?)

RSOP.msc - policies do not appear in this list (see last point)

Just for S&G I created the policy in User Configuration instead but it didn't apply either. (showed under Denied Policies with a reason of "Empty") in gpresult.

Ran some group policy modeling in the group policy management editor, trusted sites policy does not appear.

Any suggestions to fix this would be welcomed. Thanks guys and girls.

Help me r/sysadmin Kinobi, you're my only hope.

EDIT: Has anyone accomplished this by using registry edits? I'm willing to try it this way and I just found this Spiceworks forum about doing it this way: http://community.spiceworks.com/topic/326140-add-trusted-sites-via-gpo-but-still-allow-users-to-add-trusted-sites

EDIT 2 - SOLVED: I got this working! Changed Loopback policy to merge and instead of adding trusted sites to computer configuration, I added them to user Configuration. The combination of both of these changes made the policy stick. Thanks to u/bcrosby for the help!

an endpoint admin's journal

• Recent Posts
• Popular Posts
• Recent Comments

Deploy Trusted sites zone assignment using Intune

November 6, 2023

Zoom Desktop Client – Download older build versions from Zoom

October 31, 2023

Uninstall Teams chat app using remediation script and a configuration profile in Intune

October 30, 2023

Intune Last Check-in date not updating for Windows device

October 25, 2023

How to use Event Viewer to check cause of Blue screen of Death (BSOD)

October 23, 2023

5 Quick Mac OS Terminal commands to make a Mac user life easier

Powershell : Find disabled users and computers in AD

• Active Directory (1)
• Windows (7)
• November 2023
• October 2023

Deploy a set of trusted sites overriding users’ ability to add trusted sites themselves. To acheive this, an Intune configuration profile Trusted site zone assignment can be deployed to devices/users group as required.

Login to Intune Portal and navigate to: Devices > Windows > Configuration Profiles .

Hit the Create button and Select New policy

From the Create a profile menu, select Windows 10 and later for Platform , Templates for Profile type. Select Administrative templates and click Create .

Give the profile desired name and click Next .

In Configurations settings, select Computer Configuration and search for keyword “ Site to Zone “, Site to Zone Assignment List setting will be listed under search results. Go ahead click on it to Select it.

Once selected, a Site to Zone Assignment List page will appear on right side explaining different zones and values required for these zone for setup. Since this profile is being used for trusted sites, we will use the Value “2” . Go ahead and select Enabled button and start entering the trusted sites as required. please ensure to set each value to “2” . See example below:

Once done adding the list of sites, click OK to close it and Hit Next on Configuration settings page.

Add Scope tags if needed.

Under Assignments , Click Add groups to target the policy deployment to specific group of devices/users. You can also select Add all users / All all devices .

Hit Next . Then Hit Review + Save button to save.

Tags: Intune Windows

You may also like...

[Windows 10] How to completely uninstall Flash player

• Previous Zoom Desktop Client – Download older build versions from Zoom

thanks! I was just looking for this exact solution!

• Stack Overflow Public questions & answers
• Stack Overflow for Teams Where developers & technologists share private knowledge with coworkers
• Talent Build your employer brand
• Advertising Reach developers & technologists worldwide
• Labs The future of collective knowledge sharing
• About the company

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Find centralized, trusted content and collaborate around the technologies you use most.

Q&A for work

Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search.

Get early access and see previews of new features.

Internet Explorer: Unable to add a site to a security zone

I am unable to add any site to the IE security zone.

I keep getting this option. There is no option to add a site to the security zone. I am trying this from my domain controller also, with the domain administrator, and still not able to do it.

• internet-explorer
• active-directory
• windows-server-2016

The options are grayed out because the settings are controlled by group policy. If you enabled this policy, it will prevent users from adding or removing sites from security zones: Security Zones: Do not allow users to add/delete sites . You can check the related group policy and registry setting.

If you want to add sites to IE security zone, you can try to disable the above group policy or configure this group policy directly: Site to Zone Assignment List . You can enable this policy setting and enter a list of sites and their related zone numbers.

Your Answer

Reminder: Answers generated by artificial intelligence tools are not allowed on Stack Overflow. Learn more

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest.

Required, but never shown

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy .

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged internet-explorer active-directory windows-server-2016 or ask your own question .

• Featured on Meta
• The 2024 Developer Survey Is Live
• The return of Staging Ground to Stack Overflow
• The [tax] tag is being burninated
• Policy: Generative AI (e.g., ChatGPT) is banned

Hot Network Questions

• TeX capacity exceeded, sorry [grouping levels=255] while using enumerate
• How to remind myself of important matters in the heat of running the game?
• XSS against improper character sanitization
• Is it allowed to use patents for new inventions?
• Why does the proposed Lunar Crater Radio Telescope suggest an optimal latitude of 20 degrees North?
• How often does systemd journal collect/read logs from sources
• Moving after copying in assignment of conditional operator result
• How to Adjust Comparator Output Voltage for Circuit to Work at 3.3V Instead of 5V?
• What is the frequentist's Bayesian prior for a coin with unknown bias
• What legal reason, if any, does my bank have to know if I am a dual citizen of the US?
• Build the first 6 letters of an Italian codice fiscale (tax identification number)
• Why "Power & battery" stuck at spinning circle for 4 hours?
• What scientific evidence there is that keeping cooked meat at room temperature is unsafe past two hours?
• Are there any jobs that are forbidden by law to convicted felons?
• Calculation of centrifugal liquid propellant injectors
• Best quantitative version of open mapping theorem in complex analysis
• Smallest Harmonic number greater than N
• Python matrix class
• Can LLMs have intention?
• A trigonometric equation: how hard could it be?
• How do I snap the edges of hex tiles together?
• Does retirement (pre-Full Retirement Age) qualify for a special enrollment period for the affordable care act?
• Divergence of light rays - parallel approximation
• Clash between breakable tcolorbox with tikz externalize

Site to Zone assignment list (not) applying to W10 PC's

Not sure how much help this will be, But Site to Zone assignment is working here on Win 10, including 1903. If you manually go to www.toyota.com does it show as a trusted site? if so, then your site to zone is working.

The other thing i noticed in your screen shot, they want Sec set to Low, and you have it at custom, one of those custom settings might be blocking the Site Checker causing it to not see the Trusted Sites correctly.

I would start with checking the registry on one of the Win10 machines and see if the site to zone is actually applying. I see that you have checked the GPO, but this only states the GPO is successfully applying, it does not guarentee that the settings are taking on the target machine. There could be several reasons why this may or may not be applying, but I’d start with the registry to see what it says.

Related Topics

This browser is no longer supported.

Upgrade to Microsoft Edge to take advantage of the latest features, security updates, and technical support.

Per-site configuration by policy

• 3 contributors

This article describes the per-site configurations by policy and how the browser handles page loads from a site.

The browser as a decision maker

As a part of every page load, browsers make many decisions. Some, but not all, of these decisions include: whether a particular API is available, should a resource load be permitted, and should a script be allowed to run.

In most cases, browser decisions are governed by the following inputs:

• A user setting
• The URL of the page for which the decision is made

In the Internet Explorer web platform, each of these decisions was called a URLAction. For more information, see URL Action Flags . The URLAction, Enterprise Group Policy, and user settings in the Internet Control Panel controlled how the browser would handle each decision.

In Microsoft Edge, most per-site permissions are controlled using settngs and policies expressed using a simple syntax with limited wild-card support. Windows Security Zones are still used for a few configuration decisions.

Windows Security Zones

To simplify configuration for the user or admin, the legacy platform classified sites into one of five different Security Zones. These Security Zones are: Local Machine, Local Intranet, Trusted, Internet, and Restricted Sites.

When making a page load decision, the browser maps the website to a Zone, then consults the setting for the URLAction for that Zone to decide what to do. Reasonable defaults like "Automatically satisfy authentication challenges from my Intranet" means that most users never need to change any default settings.

Users can use the Internet Control Panel to assign specific sites to Zones and to configure the permission results for each zone. In managed environments, administrators can use Group Policy to assign specific sites to Zones (via "Site to Zone Assignment List" policy) and specify the settings for URLActions on a per-zone basis. Beyond manual administrative or user assignment of sites to Zones, other heuristics could  assign sites to the Local Intranet Zone . In particular, dotless host names (for example, http://payroll ) were assigned to the Intranet Zone. If a Proxy Configuration script was used, any sites configured to bypass the proxy would be mapped to the Intranet Zone.

EdgeHTML, used in WebView1 controls and Microsoft Edge Legacy, inherited the Zones architecture from its Internet Explorer predecessor with a few simplifying changes:

• Windows' five built-in Zones were collapsed to three: Internet (Internet), Trusted (Intranet+Trusted), and Local Computer. The Restricted Sites Zone was removed.
• Zone to URLAction mappings were hardcoded into the browser, ignoring Group Policies and settings in the Internet Control Panel.

Per site permissions in Microsoft Edge

Microsoft Edge makes limited use of Windows Security Zones. Instead, most permissions and features that offer administrators per-site configuration via  policy rely on lists of rules in the  URL Filter Format .

When end users open a settings page like edge://settings/content/siteDetails?site=https://example.com , they find a long list of configuration switches and lists for various permissions. Users rarely use the Settings page directly, instead they make choices while browsing and using various widgets and toggles in the  page info  dropdown. This list appears when you select the lock icon in the address bar. You can also use the various prompts or buttons at the right-edge of the address bar. The next screenshot shows an example of page information.

Enterprises can use Group Policy to set up site lists for individual policies that control the browser's behavior. To find these policies, open the  Microsoft Edge Group Policy documentation  and search for "ForUrls" to find the policies that allow and block behavior based on the loaded site's URL. Most of the relevant settings are listed in the  Group Policy for Content Settings section.

There are also many policies (whose names contain "Default") that control the default behavior for a given setting.

Many of the settings are obscure (WebSerial, WebMIDI) and there's often no reason to change a setting from the default.

Security Zones in Microsoft Edge

While Microsoft Edge relies mostly on individual policies using the URL Filter format, it continues to use Windows' Security Zones by default in a few cases. This approach simplifies deployment in Enterprises that have historically relied upon Zones configuration.

Zone policy controls the following behaviors:

• Deciding whether to release Windows Integrated Authentication (Kerberos or NTLM) credentials automatically.
• Deciding how to handle file downloads.
• For Internet Explorer mode.

Credential release

By default, Microsoft Edge evaluates  URLACTION_CREDENTIALS_USE  to decide whether Windows Integrated Authentication is used automatically, or if the user will see a manual authentication prompt. Configuring the AuthServerAllowlist site list policy prevents Zone Policy from being consulted.

File downloads

Evidence about the origins of a file download (also known as " Mark of the Web " is recorded for files downloaded from the Internet Zone. Other applications, such as the Windows Shell, and Microsoft Office may take this origin evidence into account when deciding how to handle a file.

If the Windows Security Zone policy is configured to disable the setting for launching applications and download unsafe files, Microsoft Edge's download manager blocks file downloads from sites in that Zone. A user will see this note: "Couldn't download – Blocked".

IE mode can be configured to  open all Intranet sites in IE mode . When using this configuration, Microsoft Edge evaluates the Zone of a URL when deciding whether or not it should open in IE mode. Beyond this initial decision, IE mode tabs are really running Internet Explorer, and as a result they evaluate Zones settings for every policy decision just as Internet Explorer did.

In most cases, Microsoft Edge settings can be left at their defaults. Administrators who wish to change the defaults for all sites or specific sites can use the appropriate Group Policies to specify Site Lists or default behaviors. In a handful of cases, such as credential release, file download, and IE mode, admins will continue to control behavior by configuring Windows Security Zones settings.

Frequently asked questions

Can the url filter format match on a site's ip address.

No, the format doesn't support specifying an IP range for allowlists and blocklists. It does support specification of individual IP  literals , but such rules are only respected if the user navigates to the site using said literal (for example, http://127.0.0.1/ ). If a hostname is used ( http://localhost ), the IP Literal rule will not be respected even though the resolved IP of the host matches the filter-listed IP.

Can URL filters match dotless host names?

No. You must list each hostname, for example https://payroll , https://stock , https://who , and so on.

If you were forward-thinking enough to structure your intranet such that your host names are of the following form, then you've implemented a best practice.

https://payroll.contoso-intranet.com

https://timecard.contoso-intranet.com

https://sharepoint.contoso-intranet.com

In the preceding scenario, you can configure each policy with a * .contoso-intranet.com  entry and your entire intranet will be opted in.

• Microsoft Edge documentation
• Microsoft Edge Enterprise landing page

Was this page helpful?

Coming soon: Throughout 2024 we will be phasing out GitHub Issues as the feedback mechanism for content and replacing it with a new feedback system. For more information see: https://aka.ms/ContentUserFeedback .

Submit and view feedback for

Additional resources

MEM – Deploying Trusted Sites

In this post, we will demonstrate how to deploy IE trusted sites via Microsoft Endpoint Manager (aka Intune), we will demonstrate two methods, one for complete control which will lock down the trusted sites location within Internet Settings and the other to maintain user choice, by simply adding an additional trusted sites to end users existing configuration.

• Force standard list of trusted sites and prevent end users from editing (Full Control)
• Add additional trusted sites to existing setup and allow end users to edit (One-time entry)

Full Control Method

As mentioned above, this the full control method is so administrators can control which sites are to be added to the trusted sites list, end users will not be able to add, edit or delete the entries, to get started, log into the MEM portal with your administrative account and browse to Devices , then Configuration Profiles and select Create Profile :

Select the platform to Windows 10 and later and profile to Administrative Templates :

Name and create the profile description :

In the next section, decide if this is going to be a Computer or User settings, in my case, I’m going to chose computer, browse to Computer Configuration, then Windows Components , Internet Explorer , Internet Control Panel and finally Security Page . From here select the Site to Zone Assignment List setting:

Within the setting, select Enabled and enter in the domains that you wish to add to the zone, in my case, I am going to add in https://letsconfigmgr.com/ and select a value of 2 :

The available values are as follows:

• 1 = Intranet
• 2 = Trusted Sites
• 3 = Internet Zone
• 4 = Restricted Sites

Deploy the configuration profile to a test computer group and verify the results on the device, by going to Control Panel, Internet Settings , Security , Trusted Sites and confirm that the desired sites are listed, note that you cannot add \ edit \ remove configurations:

One-Time Entry Method

Some administrators may want to allow end users to control the trusted sites list, a great way to allow this via MEM and still add entries is to deploy a PowerShell script, to do this within the MEM portal , go to Devices, Scripts and select Add :

Select Windows 10 , name and set a description:

Copy the below code and save as a .ps1 file, edit lines 1, 5 and 7 to the domain that you wish to add to zones, for an example, I have added letsconfigmgr.com, note the value of 2 on the 7th line, which reflects adding the site to the trusted sites zone, the options are:

Within script settings, upload your script and select Run this script using the logged on credentials :

Once completed, assign the script to your test device and verify the results, by going to Control Panel, Internet Settings , Security , Trusted Sites and confirm that the desired sites are listed, note that you can add \ edit \ remove configurations:

A quick note on PowerShell scripts, once the scripts have run successfully, they won’t execute again, so be aware of this if an end-user removes an entry, the only way to execute the script again, if successful previously, is to edit the existing script and re-upload or create a new script with the same contents and redeploy.

Additionally, if you’re also using security baselines within MEM, I have discovered that the Windows 10 MDM baseline for May 2019 will block the ability for end-users to add \ edit \ remove \ view trusted sites with the default settings applied, if you wish for this ability then the following settings need to be edited within the baseline to allow this:

• Internet Explorer security zones use only machine settings = Disabled
• Internet Explorer users adding sites = Enabled
• Internet Explorer users changing policies = Enabled

Be sure to check the above settings with your security team to ensure that there are no security concerns before making changes to the security baselines and ensure that all settings have been tested fully prior to rolling out to production clients.

Deploying Adobe Reader DC via ConfigMgr and Intune.

• MEM – Removing MS Teams Desktop Shortcuts

You May Also Like

Deploy Edge Favourites via Microsoft Intune

Remove News and Interests via Intune

MEM – Standardise Android layouts using Microsoft Launcher

Deploy WVD Client in System Context via MSIntune