As before you need to install the update and then select features in “Turn Windows features on or off”.

Download from here

You can, if you want to, search for just about everything inside a gpo and here is something to prove it from a blog post from GP Team blog.

Check it out: http://blogs.technet.com/b/grouppolicy/archive/2010/09/14/more-on-searching-group-policy.aspx

Download from MS here: http://bit.ly/bKSCPS

How to use Group Policy to turn off the Backup Notification in the Windows 7 Actions Center

Check out his blog too while you’re at it.

Download

Technet resource

A reference file (in Excel format) for all settings you can get here.

ADML-files are still only for standard languages (de, en, es, fr, it, jp, kr, cn, tw).

http://blogs.technet.com/grouppolicy/archive/2010/02/24/troubleshooting-group-policy.aspx

Use it and develop it further to add you “standard” checks to have your standard procedure.

We all need to troubleshoot Group Policies sooner or later…

Scenario:
Trying to create a shortcut to a fixed drive letter using Group Policy Preference that points to a location on the network. After login there is no shortcut created and if you look in eventlog you see an error “0×80070002 The system cannot find the file specified”. If you run GPupdate /Force the shortcut is created.

This is an issue where it’s trying to create the shortcut before the drive’s are connected and Windows can’t create new shortcuts to locations not connected.

Workarounds:

1. Create the shortcut using UNC-path
2. Create the drives and shortcuts using logonscript
3. Create a scheduled task (using GPP) to run GPupdate after user logon or use logonscript to run GPupdate

Hope someone benefits from this information.

When you do a settings report of a GPO which contains references to an adm-template (not admx-template) and for some reason this adm-template doesn’t exist in the default paths anymore (you may have cleaned them out) you get “Extra registry settings” in the report instead to show these settings.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;981704

Of course the better way is to convert the adm-template to an admx-template instead and use the central store!

Microsoft has released a hotfix

Error message occurs when you use GPMC to view a software restriction Group Policy setting in Windows 7 and in Windows Server 2008 R2: “An error has occurred while collecting data for Software Restriction Policies”
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/981750

http://gps.cloudapp.net/

I think you will have it more easier to find your setting for a GPO here instead of trying to find it in GPO-editor.

Well done!

If you haven’t copied them from your Windows Server 2008 to SYSVOL for management download this package and move it into SYSVOL for all your administrators.

Instructions and everyhing is on the download page which you find here

These Starter GPO’s are recommended settings for Windows XP and Windows Vista. It contains Settings for “Specialized Security— Limited Functionality (SSLF)” and “Enterprise Client (EC)”.

Of course you need RSAT to manage these Starter GPO’s

Download them here

Don’t forget to install Service Pack 1 for Vista first (it’s mandatory).

Windows Vista Service Pack 1

RSAT for Windows Vista x86

RSAT for Windows Vista x64

Knowledgebase Article

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=A46F1DBE-760C-4807-A82F-4F02AE3C97B0&displaylang=en

This program contains a lot of templates (GPO’s) which are for securing your environment. This to save loads of workhours for securing and preparing a your environment.

Don’t forget to read the documentation and please try the settings on a few computers first before applying to everyone.

http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=2023&SiteID=17

If you don’t find the existing forums enough then you can always check and ask you questions also here.

They are now here for XP, Server 2003 and Vista

Download:

Group Policy Preference Client Side Extensions for Windows XP (KB943729)
Group Policy Preference Client Side Extensions for Windows XP x64 Edition (KB943729)
Group Policy Preference Client Side Extensions for Windows Vista (KB943729)
Group Policy Preference Client Side Extensions for Windows Vista x64 Edition (KB943729)
Group Policy Preference Client Side Extensions for Windows Server 2003 (KB943729)
Group Policy Preference Client Side Extensions for Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition (KB943729)

Today while walking the net I came to read this blogpost about “Good or bad code”.

Starting from today this is also how I will eval my code when writing scripts

New Unit of Reviewed Code Quality

This file contains all Group Policy settings since Windows 2000 so this is the only file you need. For Windows Server 2008 24 new settings are available where 12 of them are for Terminal Services functionallity.

This reference file is also for the new admx/adml-format so to know for sure you can use settings described in this file you need to start using Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008 to configure your GPO’s.

Download the new reference file here (xls and xlsx file available)

Even if it’s only Tuesday this must be selected as funniest this week.

Opening the Windows Vista box

I still can’t understand what they where thinking about when they wrote this!

• Advanced Group Policy Management (AGPM) Overview
• Group Policy Preferences Overview

AGPM is a tool included in the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack which can only be aquired if you have a Software Assurance license with MS.
Read more about AGPM here
Download the Whitepaper here

The new Group Policy Preference Whitepaper is a new document released for Windows Server 2008 which gives you some information on how to handle Group Policy in a different way. You sure will not get disappointed if you read this document and haven’t looked to far into Group Policy in Windows Server 2008, I think you will download and test right away
Download it here