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Exclusions, electives and overrides

In this section:

File sync controls allows you to create:

Exclusions - exclude files and file types from being uploaded and downloaded. For example, temporary files are automatically excluded from synchronization and are not uploaded.

Electives - elect files to be synchronized on an individual basis. Elective files are visible to users but must be synchronized individually using the option from the File Director context menu or by double-clicking the required file. Electives are a way to avoid heavy network traffic. A good example is to make files over a certain size elective, and so they are not automatically synchronized.

Overrides - specify exceptions to exclusions and electives. For example, these can be used to overwrite the default exclusions.

When enabled, exclusions and electives are enforced across all map points regardless of map point synchronization policy. Changes are applied when the user logs into File Director

Exclusions

File policy exclusions enable control over file synchronization. When you configure exclusions, they are applied to new files only. Any existing synchronized files or folders that match a new exclusion, will continue to be synchronized.

An expression can be defined using variables such as path, file type, age. If files/folders are found which match a configured expression, they will not be uploaded by the client. Also, any remote files or folders which match an exclusion, will not be displayed in the folder listing.

Exclusion locations

Set exclusions in the following locations:

HKCU\Software\AppSense\DataNow\FilePolicy\Exclusions

HKLM\Software\AppSense\DataNow\FilePolicy\Exclusions

HKCU settings take precedence over HKLM settings.

Default values

File Director includes a default exclusion expression that prevents temporary, partial, and other files that are unlikely to be required from being synchronized.

Exclusion Description
.*\.tmp All files ending with .tmp
.*\.partial IE temp download files
.*\.crdownload Chrome temp download files
*\.part Firefox temp download files
.*\.download Safari temp download files
~\$.*  All office backup files starting with ~$
[0-9A-F]{8,8} Excel temp files
.*~ Files ending in a tilde ~
$Recycle.Bin The Recycle bin

Default exclusions for user profile folders

If you use In-location Sync to select an entire user profile to be managed by File Director, the following locations in the profile are ignored by default to save bandwidth and storage:

  • The App Data directory
  • NTUSER.DAT* files, for example ntuser.dat.LOG1 or ntuser.ini
  • OneDrive
  • Junctions, for example Links, Favorites, or Printer Shortcuts

You can add additional locations in a user profile to ignore using the standard exclusions language. For example, if installed, you may want to exclude the Dropbox folder.

Default exclusions are always applied unless they are explicitly overridden. See Exclusion overrides below.

Example exclusion expressions

Description

Exclude files above a certain size for all users on the machine

Registry path HKLM\Software\AppSense\DataNow\FilePolicy\Exclusions
Type REG_SZ
Name*

Exclude files equal to or over 1GB

Value Size >= 1GB

*Note: The Name value can be set to anything you wish to use, typically it would be used to describe the exclusion.

 

Description Exclude files that have not been modified within the last year for all users on the machine
Registry path HKLM\Software\AppSense\DataNow\FilePolicy\Exclusions
Type REG_SZ
Name* Exclude files older than 1 year
Value

Age > 1Y AND Type == File

 

Description

Exclude files or folders based on the supplied pattern for specific users, ignoring the case. This exclusion would apply to any folder called LocalFilesNoSync regardless of its location within the managed area.

Registry path HKCU\Software\AppSense\DataNow\FilePolicy\Exclusions
Type REG_SZ
Name* Exclude any folder called LocalFilesNoSync
Value

Path == /.*\\LocalFilesNoSync.*/i

 

Description

Exclude desktop.ini and Thumbs.db files (based on the supplied pattern) for all users on the machine, case sensitive. This applies regardless of their location within the File Director managed area

Registry path HKLM\Software\AppSense\DataNow\FilePolicy\Exclusions
Type REG_SZ
Name*

Exclude desktop.ini and Thumbs.db

Value

(Name ==/desktop.ini/) OR (Name ==/Thumbs.db/)

 

Description

Exclude files that are larger than 1GB in size unless they have typical Office file extensions, regardless of their location within the File Director managed area.

Registry path HKLM\Software\AppSense\DataNow\FilePolicy\Exclusions
Type REG_SZ
Name*

Exclude files above 1GB except for Office files

Value

(Size > 1GB) AND (Ext NotIn [xlsx xls docx doc pptx ppt]

 

Description

Exclude the specified folder and any items within it

Registry path HKLM\Software\AppSense\DataNow\FilePolicy\Exclusions
Type REG_SZ
Name* Exclude beneath LocalFilesNotSync
Value

BENEATH == "%USERPROFILE%\Desktop\LocalFilesNotSync"

Variables

When an expression is evaluated by the File Director client, the following variables are initialized with information relating to the file being processed:

Variable Description
Size

The size of the file.

Files over a defined maximum limit are excluded from synchronization. Customers can define the maximum size of any file to be synhronized. The file size limit is set in MB one size limit exclusion per key can be set.

Age

The period between now and the date the file was last modified in days, months or years (d, m or y).

Files older than a defined maximum age are excluded from synchronization. The maximum age is taken from the Last Modified date. One age restriction exclusion per key can be set.

Path The full path of the local file including drive and parent directories.
Name The name of the file. For example, file.docx.
Ext The extension of the file. For example, docx.
Type

The type of file. This can be file or directory.

The exclusion is applied against the filename extension. It does not use any metadata to determine the file type. One file type exclusion can be set for each key.

Beneath

Environment variables are supported in exclusion expressions when used with the BENEATH keyword. You can also use an absolute path.

For example, the following expression uses the BENEATH keyword to exclude both the Favorites and the Links folder when a user's profile is set as a managed location:

BENEATH == "%USERPROFILE%\Favorites" OR BENEATH == “%USERPROFILE%\Links”

There are no user-definable variables in the expressions. If the client encounters a syntax error in an expression, a message is logged in the Windows event log and the default values are applied.
You can apply multiple exclusions in a single expression.

Exclusion overrides

To override an exclusion, create an override entry in one of the following locations:

HKCU\Software\AppSense\DataNow\FilePolicy\ExclusionOverrides

HKLM\Software\AppSense\DataNow\FilePolicy\ExclusionOverrides

Overrides use the same language as exclusions.

Example exclusion override expressions

Description

Override the default exclusion to allow the Favorites folder to sync

Registry path HKLM\Software\AppSense\DataNow\FilePolicy\ExclusionOverrides
Type REG_SZ
Name*

Override Favorites

Value

BENEATH == %USERPROFILE%\Favorites

 

Description

Override the default exclusion to allow tmp files to sync

Registry path HKLM\Software\AppSense\DataNow\FilePolicy\ExclusionOverrides
Type REG_SZ
Name*

Override tmp

Value

Ext In [tmp]

Electives

Electives are associated with automatic map points. If a file is identified by an elective expression it will not be automatically downloaded to the endpoint. Electives enable administrators to control what files are synchronized to user endpoints by default. A typical use-case is to elect file types that the user is not expected to use. Elective files can be downloaded by the user on demand, but excluding them by default can help protect disk space and/or bandwidth.

The approach used to define exclusions also applies to defining electives.

Elective locations

Set electives in the following locations:

  • HKCU\Software\AppSense\DataNow\FilePolicy\Electives
  • HKLM\Software\Appsense\DataNow\FilePolicy\Electives

Example elective expression

Description

Elective to prevent automatic download of iso files – these will need to be manually synced

Registry path HKLM\Software\AppSense\DataNow\FilePolicy\Electives
Type REG_SZ
Name*

Stop auto download of iso files

Value

Ext In [iso]

Elective Overrides

By default, there are no electives configured. You can specify an elective override if required, once you have an elective configured. Elective overrides use the same syntax and logic as exclusions, exclusion overrides and electives.

Elective Override locations

Set elective overrides in the following locations:

HKCU\Software\AppSense\DataNow\FilePolicy\ElectiveOverrides

HKLM\Software\AppSense\DataNow\FilePolicy\ElectiveOverrides

HKCU settings take precedence over HKLM settings.

Related topics

File sync controls

Sync status


This page refers to an older version of the product.
View the current version of the online Help.