At Ignite, we announced two new features for IT Administrators. The first was Silent Sync Account Configuration for OneDrive which will allow you to silently configure OneDrive using Windows 10 or domain credentials for Windows 7 and Windows 8 on the first run. The second was the ability to let you set the maximum download throughput rate for computers running the OneDrive sync client. Both of these features are now in preview.
Silent Sync Account Configuration
Important: If you enable this setting, ADAL (Azure Active Directory Authentication Library) must be enabled or the account configuration will fail. Download and open EnableADAL.reg to enable ADAL and restart the sync client.
This policy lets you configure the OneDrive sync client silently using the primary Windows account on Windows 10, and domain credentials on Windows 7 and later.
If you enable this setting, OneDrive.exe will attempt to sign in to the work or school account using these credentials. It will check the available disk space before syncing, and if it is large, OneDrive will prompt the user to choose their folders. The threshold for which the user is prompted can be configured using DiskSpaceCheckThresholdMB. OneDrive will attempt to sign in on every account on the computer and once successful, that account will no longer attempt silent configuration.
If you enable this setting and the user is using the previous OneDrive for Business sync client, the new sync client will attempt to take over syncing. The new sync client will attempt to import the user's sync settings from the previous sync client.
If you disable this setting, OneDrive will not attempt to automatically sign in users.
[HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\OneDrive]
"SilentAccountConfig"=dword:00000001
This policy can be used with DiskSpaceCheckThresholdMB as well as DefaultRootDir.
Please let us know if you have feedback on this feature or encounter any issues. Right-click the OneDrive icon in the notification area and click "Report a problem." Please tag any feedback with "SilentConfig" so that your feedback will be sent directly to engineers working on this feature.
Configure the maximum OneDrive size for downloading all files automatically
This setting is used in conjunction with SilentAccountConfig. Any user who has a OneDrive that's larger than the specified threshold (in MB) will be prompted to choose the folders they would like to sync before the OneDrive sync client (OneDrive.exe) downloads the files.
[HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\OneDrive\DiskSpaceCheckThresholdMB]
Example: "1111-2222-3333-4444" = dword:0005000
(where "1111-2222-3333-4444" is the Tenant ID and 0005000 sets a threshold of 5000MB)
How to set the maximum download throughput that OneDrive.exe uses
This policy lets you set the maximum download throughput rate in kilobytes (KB)/sec for computers running the OneDrive sync client. The minimum rate is 50 KB/sec and the maximum rate is 100,000 KB/sec. The lower the download throughput rate that you configure, the longer computers running OneDrive.exe will take to download files.
By default, the download throughput rate is unlimited and can be configured by the user directly in the sync client. If you enable this setting, computers affected by this policy will use the maximum download throughput rate that you specify, and the users will not be able to change the download rate in sync client settings themselves. Note, that OneDrive.exe must be restarted on users’ devices to apply the configuration specified in this setting. If you disable this setting, users can configure the maximum download rate for their computer by opening sync client settings and clicking the Network tab.
We recommend that you use this setting in cases where Files On-Demand is NOT enabled and where strict traffic restrictions are required, such as when you initially deploy the sync client in your organization or enable syncing of team sites. We don't recommend that you use this setting on an ongoing basis because it will decrease sync client performance and negatively impact the user experience.
Enabling this policy sets the following registry key value to a number from 50 through 100,000. For example:
[HKCU\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\OneDrive] "DownloadBandwidthLimit"=dword:00000032
The above registry key sets the download throughput rate limit to 50KB/sec, using the hexadecimal value for 50, which is 00000032.
All the computer configuration policies can be found under Computer Configuration\Policies\Administrative Templates\OneDrive.
Additional Group Policies to control OneDrive Sync can be found here
Questions? Feedback? Feel free to drop in your questions below
