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

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

• 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

Microsoft released the scripts as a downloadable package for Vista which you can download here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=38c1a89b-a6d2-4f2a-a944-9236999aee65&displaylang=en&tm

This is because in the white paper you can read the following: “Administrators requested features in Group Policy that simplify policy management. To do this, the service pack will uninstall the Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) and GPEdit.msc will edit local Group Policy by default. In the SP1 timeframe, administrators can download an out-of-band release that will give them the ability to add comments to Group Policy Objects (GPOs) or individual settings and search for specific settings.”

This means that when you install SP1 you will no longer have GPMC installed on your computer and you should install the new enhanced edition of GPMC that will be available for download.

There is a small catch. If you install the SP1 now you will have GPMC removed and there is no GPMC-version available for download so then you need to: “Beta testers will find that after installing Windows Vista SP1, they no longer have access to GPMC, and that the new, enhanced version of GPMC has not yet been released. In this case, administrators can continue to edit Group Policy by opening a remote desktop session directly to the server or to a PC running the release to manufacturing (RTM) version of Windows Vista.” as written on Windows Vista Blog

They wrote about this on Betanews.com and on this site they have some parts completely wrong and instead of me writing about it you can read some parts from it on Darren Mar-Elia’s Blog which I find amusing.

In my personal mind I think it was the best to remove GPMC for a number of reasons since on most of the computers you wouldn’t need it, you can get very far using only gpedit.msc and rsop.msc and you should risk having users that could do own things with the tool, like for example create a backup of all your GPO’s etc.

Lets also hope the new enhanced version is as good as the existing one!

Download Windows Vista Service Pack 1 White paper

In the Group Policy Team Blog they have written more or less an instruction on how to do this so I just wanted to post the link to it so you can read it too.

Customs Check– Importing and Exporting WMI Filters

Whenever you do any setting in a GPO you can add on a Comment in the new Comment page writing whatever you like. This is stored in the GPO so you will always have it for reference for further use later or any other purpose you might have.

These comments you write will of course print out on your reports created from GPMC, which I think is a very nice feature added.

Comments are stored at \\ad.domain.com\SYSVOL\ad.domain.com\policies\{GUID}\[MACHINE]/[USER]\comment.cmtx which is of course an XML file containing all your comments of settings in the GPO.

Using comments for your settings might make your life easier but remember that they wont show up if you are still using XP!

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As you can see in printscreen StarterGPOs have their own location in GPMC where you create your starters like any other GPO. Just right click and select New, Select a name and maybe a comment about this Starter and of you go.
When you open the Editor you will see that you only have Administrative Templates which is the only thing you can configure in these Starters. Software Settings and Windows Settings are excluded.
 

StarterGPO’s isn’t located in the same place as normal GPO’s.
A normal GPO would be in \\ad.domain.com\SYSVOL\ad.domain.com\Policies\ but a StarterGPO is located in \\ad.domain.com\SYSVOL\ad.domain.com\StarterGPOs but it’s still defined with a GUID

If you open one of these folders you wont find any GPT.ini file as normal when you have a GPO, instead you will find a StarterGPO.tmplx which is some sort of XML-file defining the Starter.

In Windows 2008 everything is divided into Roles and Features. Roles are major “changes” to a server, for example Domain Controller, Terminal Server etc. Features is more or less “Add/Remove Windows components” which we have had in the past but of course with some more things.

One of these “more things” is the GPMC which you need to add manually using the Server Manager: Add Features.

After GPMC has been installed you can find it as normal in the Administrative Tools.

http://gpfaq.se/?page_id=15