Some Files and Folders That Are Not Configured to Be Made Available Offline Are Cached (328284)

SYMPTOMS

Some files and folders that are not configured to be cached (that is, to be made available offline) may be cached anyway. The CSCsniff tool shows that these files and folders have been system pinned (that is, Windows has automatically requested them).

Note The CSCsniff tool is a Microsoft Product Support Services (PSS) internal tool that support professionals can make available to customers for troubleshooting Offline File issues.

CAUSE

This problem may occur if a file or folder that is configured to be cached contains a link to a file or folder that is hosted on a Distributed File System (DFS) share. The administrative caching algorithm (the admin-pin code) does not check to see whether a link target is "cacheable" before pinning it.

The following configuration allows files and folders to be cached:

The Disable user configuration of Offline files policy setting is enabled.
The Disable "Make available offline" policy setting is enabled.
The files and folders are listed in the Administratively assigned offline files policy setting.
The DFS shares are not explicitly configured to switch off the caching settings (that is, the Allow caching of files in this shared folder setting is enabled for these shares).

With this configuration in place, only the files and folders that are listed in the Administratively assigned offline files setting should be cached. The content of the DFS shares should not be cached because the first two policy settings prevent users from making files and folders that are on DFS shares available for offline use.

However, if the files and folders that are listed in the Administratively assigned offline files setting contain shortcuts (links) to files or folders that are located on the DFS shares, the linked-to target files or folders are also cached. This occurs even though the Windows Offline Files feature does not fully support the caching of files and folders on DFS shares.

RESOLUTION

Service Pack Information

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Microsoft Windows 2000. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

260910 How to Obtain the Latest Windows 2000 Service Pack

Hotfix Information

A supported hotfix is now available from Microsoft, but it is only intended to correct the problem that is described in this article. Only apply it to systems that are experiencing this specific problem. This hotfix may receive additional testing. Therefore, if you are not severely affected by this problem, we recommend that you wait for the next Windows 2000 service pack that contains this hotfix.

To resolve this problem immediately, contact Microsoft Product Support Services to obtain the fix. For a complete list of Microsoft Product Support Services phone numbers and information about support costs, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://support.microsoft.com/contactus/?ws=support

NOTE: In special cases, charges that are ordinarily incurred for support calls may be canceled if a Microsoft Support Professional determines that a specific update will resolve your problem. The typical support costs will apply to additional support questions and issues that do not qualify for the specific update in question.

The English version of this fix has the file attributes (or later) that are listed in the following table. The dates and times for these files are listed in coordinated universal time (UTC). When you view the file information, it is converted to local time. To find the difference between UTC and local time, use the Time Zone tab in the Date and Time tool in Control Panel.

   Date         Time   Version        Size     File name
   ------------------------------------------------------
   01-Oct-2002  10:27  5.0.2195.6062  101,136  Cscdll.dll
   01-Oct-2002  10:27  5.0.2195.6076  238,864  Cscui.dll
   26-Sep-2002  11:24  5.0.2195.6073  371,856  Mrxsmb.sys
   26-Sep-2002  11:24  5.0.2195.6073  132,816  Rdbss.sys