This policy setting determines which users or groups can launch or activate DCOM applications remotely or locally. This setting is used to control the attack surface of the computer for DCOM applications.

You can use this setting to grant access to all the computers to users of DCOM applications. When you define this setting, and specify the users or groups that are to be given permission, the security descriptor field is populated with the Security Descriptor Definition Language representation of those groups and privileges. If the security descriptor is left blank, the policy setting is defined in the template, but it is not enforced. Users and groups can be given explicit Allow or Deny privileges on local launch, remote launch, local activation, and remote activation.

The registry settings that are created as a result of this policy take precedence over the previous registry settings in this area. Remote Procedure Call Services (RpcSs) checks the new registry keys in the Policies section for the computer restrictions; these entries take precedence over the existing registry keys under OLE.

The possible values for this Group Policy setting are:

• Blank. This represents the local security policy way of deleting the policy enforcement key. This value deletes the policy and then sets it to Not defined state. The Blank value is set by using the ACL editor and emptying the list, and then pressing OK.
• SDDL. This is the Security Descriptor Definition Language representation of the groups and privileges you specify when you enable this policy.
• Not Defined. This is the default value.

Note
If the administrator is denied access to activate and launch DCOM applications due to the changes made to DCOM in this version of Windows, this policy setting can be used for controlling the DCOM activation and launch to the computer. The administrator can specify which users and groups can launch and activate DCOM applications on the computer both locally and remotely by using the DCOM: Machine Launch Restrictions in Security Descriptor Definition Language (SDDL) syntax policy setting. This restores control of the DCOM application to the administrator and specified users. To do this, open the DCOM: Machine Launch Restrictions in Security Descriptor Definition Language (SDDL) syntax setting, and click Edit Security. Specify the groups you want to include and the computer launch permissions for those groups. This defines the setting and sets the appropriate SDDL value.