$aad Windows Menu

The "point" of AADS Application Control is to replace the default Windows Menu by a restricted, under-control-of-the-Administrator menu. However, it might be feasible to excluded some users from these restrictions.

Example

This is a minimal collection of Applications and Directives. The result of this is a default Windows desktop with no restrictions for the members of the group Administrators:

• Because of the directive "$aad Windows Menu", Explorer is started such that a default Windows Menu is shown to the User (users who are a member of the group Administrators)
• Because of $aad Apply Relaxed Control, there are no restrictions for the User (users who are a member of the group Administrators)

Do not...

Do not mix the directive $aad Windows Menu with 1 or more Applications and / or Sets.
Example:

This configuration is "nonsense", because:

• The group "Remote Desktop Users" has several Applications and Sets assigned.
• However, when an user does a login, the default Windows Menu will be shown.
  • The default Windows Menu does not contain the assigned Applications and Sets.
  • The default Windows Menu shows a mix of what software vendors, the Administrator and Microsoft wants to be there in the Windows Start Menu.

Disable Start Menu with Tiles

When the option "Disable Start Menu with Tiles" has been set within Optimize, no user will see the default Windows Start Menu with Tiles.
It is expected that all users will get a Start Menu based on Application Control settings.

However, it is possible and OK to combine the option "Disable Start Menu with Tiles" and "$aad Windows Menu":

• When the Optimize Option "Disable Start Menu with Tiles" is selected, only those users who have explicitly the Control Directive "$aad Windows Menu" will be able to use the Windows 10/11 Menu.
• All other users will not be shown the Windows 10/11 Menu. AADServer does disable the Windows 10/11 Menu for all other Users.