Another Newb Question...
When creating the Application Policy to disallow third party installs, do I need to specify the applications not to allow or will the policy block everything except the apps I add to the Required app policy? The instructions from BB support are a little vague.

You need two Application Policies, one disallowing all apps which you assing to the "Application Software" entry in the Software Configuration. The second Application Policy will allow the applications to be installed and must be assigned to the apps you want to deploy.

Okay thanks. Do I need to specifically list applications I do not want allowed or will the creation of a disallowed policy disallow all third-party apps?

Thanks again.

The policy that dis-allows applications is for any and all applications EXCEPT for those you specifically allow. Kind of opposite of what you are thinking.

Be warned... RIM somewhat broke the whitelist functionality with the BES 4.1 and newer software. For example, say you want to allow the widgit application ver 1.2.3 to be used. Everything is fine so far. However, tomorrow widgit ver 2.0 is avaiable and you want to allow your users to run it. With the 4.1 and newer software, as soon as you update your allowed software list with ver 2.0, ver 1.2.3 will no longer be allowed and immediately removed from your users' devices even before they can download the new version.

Prior to BES 4.1, you could allow multiple versions of the same app but not any more. If the app happens to be a custom business critical app your users require, you cause a real issue when suddenly they can no longer run the old version. And you also cause your servers a huge spike as they all try to download the new version at the same time.

The only workaround is if you build widgit ver 2.0 as if it was a completely new/different application (ie, no longer named widgit).

Supposedly this will be fixed with BES 5.0, but I think the next ice age will be here before we see 5.0.

fbrimm

Great info. Thanks for the reply