Last week we tried to use VEXcode text and got the following error when we tried to build the code:
“This program is blocked by group policy. For more information, contact your system administrator.”
Yesterday we tried to use VEXcode text and everything went great; we could build and install the program on the V5 brain and everything worked. Today, we are getting the same error as last week. Anyone have any ideas? We are using a school computer so maybe it is blocked but why only sometimes? Thanks.
The problem we are facing on our domain is that our students are prevented from running batch files via group policy. When you build code, a batch file is created and run from:
-systemdisk-\Users\-username-\Appdata\Local\Temp\make_xxxx.bat. It then deletes itself regardless of the output.
the batch files are created as a byproduct of the build system we use (gnu make). We don’t create them directly in VEXcode, “make” recompiles any files you have changed and creates the program file that is downloaded to the V5 brain. “make” is creating the batch files when it needs to do things such as creating new folders to write output files.
So from past experience with hosting my own domain network/server, the IT department has implemented a group policy rule that is interfering with the program that is installed on the computer, for those that don’t know in windows server environments group policies are rules that can be applied to a group of computers that are registered on your domain. Now to explain why it happens intermittently, is may be due to you using a different computer, cause sometimes depending on how old the school computer is the IT department of the school may have gotten new computers and the ones you are using are likely to be neglected as far as being maintained because after all if this is the case the school is shifting over to newer equipment, or a more complicated thing that could be hapenning is that if you are using a different computer each time and keep having this problem rep-eatedly with the smae computer or set of computers may be due to the group policy on that computer is out of date with the central group policy server, so a simple gpupdate in command prompt should fix it, though you will need to have administrator access to successfully issue the command. I think that should answer your question way more in depth than you might have expected but that kind of thing can delve into some complex systems, though your local system Administrator will be more than likely to fix the issue if it persists, so hit them up and they should be willing to help you.
-Robolathe