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Microsoft Group Policy Guide

About the Book

About the Authors

Group Policy provides extraordinary features for small, medium and large organizations including extensive security, software distribution, and desktop lockdown capabilities. At just over 800 pages (including all front and back matter), this book is the most exhaustive examination of Group Policy written so far.

CONTENTS AT A GLANCE
PART I: Getting Started with Group Policy
Chapter 1: Overview of Group Policy
Chapter 2: Working with Group Policy
Chapter 3: Advanced Group Policy Management

PART II: Group Policy Implementation & Scenarios
Chapter 4: Deploying Group Policy
Chapter 5: Hardening Clients and Servers
Chapter 6: Managing and Maintaining Essential Windows Components
Chapter 7: Managing User Settings and Data
Chapter 8: Maintaining Internet Explorer Configurations
Chapter 9 Deploying and Maintaining Software Through Group Policy
Chapter 10: Managing Microsoft Office Configurations
Chapter 11: Maintaining Secure Network Communications
Chapter 12: Creating Custom Environments

PART III: Group Policy Customization
Chapter 13: Group Policy Structure and Processing
Chapter 14: Customizing Administrative Templates
Chapter 15 Security Templates
PART IV: Group Policy Troubleshooting
Chapter 16: Troubleshooting Group Policy
Chapter 17: Resolving Common Group Policy Problems

APPENDIXES
Appendix A: Group Policy Reference
Appendix B: What’s New in Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1
Appendix C: GPMC Scripting
Appendix D: Office 2003 Administrative Template Highlights

William R. Stanek (http://www.williamstanek.com) has 20 years of hands-on experience with advanced programming and development. He is a leading technology expert, an award-winning author, and an exceptional instructor who teaches courses in Microsoft Windows, SQL Server, Exchange Server, and IIS administration. Over the years, his practical advice has helped millions of programmers, developers, and network engineers all over the world. His 50+ books have more than three million copies in print. Current and forthcoming books include Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Inside Out (Microsoft Press, 2004), Microsoft Windows XP Professional Administrator’s Pocket Consultant, Second Edition (Microsoft Press, 2004), Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Administrator’s Pocket Consultant (Microsoft Press, 2003), and Microsoft IIS 6.0 Administrator’s Pocket Consultant (Microsoft Press, 2003).

Darren Mar-Elia (http://www.gpoguy.com) is Quest Software’s CTO for Windows Management and a Microsoft MVP for Group Policy. Darren has more than 18 years of
experience in systems and network administration, design, and architecture. Darren is a contributing editor for Windows IT Pro Magazine. He has written and contributed to ten books on Windows NT and Windows 2000, including Upgrading and Repairing Networks (Que, 1996), The Definitive Guide to Windows 2000 Group Policy (NetIQ, FullArmor, and Realtimepublishers.com), and Tips and Tricks Guide to Group Policy (NetIQ, FullArmor, and Realtimepublishers.com).

Derek Melber is a technical instructor, consultant, and author. Derek holds a Masters degree from the University of Kansas. He also has Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) certification and Certified Information Security Manager (CISM) certification. A Microsoft MVP with 15 years of experience in solution development, training, public speaking, and consulting, Derek has used his experience and knowledge to write numerous books on Windows Active Directory, Group Policy, security, auditing, and certifications. Derek offers both training and consulting on Group Policy, and he has developed and trained over 100,000 technical professionals around the world.

Cool Tidbits...

When you install the GPMC on your Microsoft Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 computer, a set of subfolders is created under the installation folder (usually in %ProgramFiles%\gpmc). One of those subfolders is the scripts folder, and within that folder are a number of prebuilt Windows Scripting Host (WSH) scripts that leverage the GPMC scripting interfaces. There is also a help file (Gpmc.chm) in this folder that describes, among other things, all of the scripting interfaces and their associated methods.

Helpful Extras...

By default when you edit a GPO, the Administrative Template files are loaded from the GPO into the Group Policy Object Editor. This can affect the way you see policy in multiple language environments. For example, if you originally created the GPO on an English language system, the GPO contains the English language version of the Administrative Template files. If you later edit the GPO on a Spanish language system, you get the English language version of the templates.

By enabling Always Use Local ADM Files For The Group Policy Object Editor under Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\System\Group Policy, you can specify that the local version of Administrative Templates should be loaded instead of those used to originally create the GPO. This can be useful if you want to edit policy using your local language. However, if Administrative Template files you need are not available locally, you might not see all the settings that have been configured.

By default when you start the Group Policy Object Editor, your system checks the timestamp on the Administrative Templates in your local %SystemRoot%\Inf folder and compares it to the timestamp on the Administrative Templates stored in the GPO you are working with. If the local files are newer, they are copied into the GPO.

By enabling Turn Off Automatic Update Of ADM Files under User Configuration\Administrative Templates\System\Group Policy, you can prevent automatic updates to the Administrative Template files in GPOs. Although this is helpful if you want to ensure local source files are not copied into a GPO, this policy should  rarely be used without careful thought given to how this will affect Group Policy. This automatic update process is used, for example, to update Group Policy with new versions if you've installed new operating systems or new operating system service packs in your Active Directory environment.

Additionally, if Always Use Local ADM Files For The Group Policy Object Editor is enabled, the setting of Turn Off Automatic Update Of ADM Files is ignored.

GROUP POLICY RESOURCES

WINDOWS SERVER AND GROUP POLICY

MICROSOFT OFFICE AND GROUP POLICY

Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 Group Policy Reference

Group Policy reference spreadsheet

Migration tables for migrating GPOs

Troubleshooting GPOs

Windows Installer information

“What is the Active Directory Replication Model?”

“Best Practice Active Directory Design for Managing Windows Networks”

Distributed File System (DFS)

Deploying Microsoft Office 2003 Using Group Policy

Maintaining Office installations

Office 2000 Resource Kit

Office XP Resource Kit

Office 2003 Resource Kit

Office updates for Administrators

Office 2003 Group Policies spreadsheet

Updates for Office 2003 service packs

Additional resource tools and files for Visio 2003 and for Project 2003

WINDOWS SECURITY AND GROUP POLICY

LOOKING FOR MORE RESOURCES...

Windows Server 2003 Security Guide

Threats and Countermeasures Guide

Securing system services on DCs and member servers

IPSec in the Windows Server 2003 operating system

PKI technologies
 
Thank you for visiting the Group Policy resource page! We will periodically update this page and add additional resources.

This page is maintained by William. If you're looking for a resource or want one added, you can email him at williamstanek@aol.com. You can find details on William's Group Policy training seminar which features this book at http://www.williamstanek.com/training/seminars/.

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©William R. Stanek 2004-2008. All Rights Reserved.

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