Best practices for Application Control Solution policies

Issue

If you configure Application Control Solution (ACS) policies incorrectly they could prevent services or programs from starting or running with the proper rights.

Solution

You can avoid conflicts resulting from incorrectly configured ACS policies by using the following best practices:

• Always test policies on machines which mirror the production environment before rolling out to production. 
• Assign policies that allow processes a lower policy priority number than policies that deny processes.
• Make sure your other policy enforcement settings check boxes are selected or cleared, depending on the aims of your policy.
• Policies that deny processes always exclude the following Application filters:
  • LocalSystem and Service
  • Signed Security Catalog
• You should (almost) never use wildcards in deny policies–they should be considered only after performing extensive testing.