Feb 05
Windows Vista Help, Howto, Microsoft, Windows Vista No Comments
I know I haven’t written anything in a long time and I sure will start writting some more soon again but I saw this blog-post today (in Swedish) which has a link to a “Windows Help and How-to”
Even if it’s only Tuesday this must be selected as funniest this week.
I still can’t understand what they where thinking about when they wrote this! 
Nov 15
GPMC, Windows Server 2008 AGPM, GPMC, Microsoft, Windows 2008 No Comments
MS released two new whitepapers this week that might be of interest
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
Oct 11
ADMX, GPO, Windows Vista ADMX, Download, Microsoft 1 Comment
MS has released the Administrative Templates as a downloadable package.
At first I wasn’t sure why but then I could see that this package also includes all language files for the admx-files which will make it easier if you have people in different countries all creating GPO’s and they want to create them in their own language. So it’s much easier way to collect the adml-files rater than needing to install different Vista’s just to get the adml-files.
Download the files from here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=05d0598b-95f9-4bdd-af36-b365d68ec5f6&DisplayLang=en
Oct 01
GPO, Windows Server 2003, Windows XP GPDBPA, Windows XP No Comments
I asked the question if they were going to change this tool so it also is runnable on localized versions of Windows.
The answer is that it won’t install on a localized version but you can install it on an English Windows XP and then transfer the files to your localized version and then run it. The files are located at %ProgramFiles%\GPDBPA\
They don’t guarantee success but you might want to try it (in LAB-environment first of course).
Sep 23
GPO, Windows Server 2008 Microsoft, Troubleshooting, Windows 2008 No Comments
Microsoft has released a new troubleshooting library for Windows 2008.
This is to include all events etc. for troubleshooting problems with Group Policy.
Here you will find the information: http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/library/e695eea4-01c4-429e-8fd1-c98e3ef6f7791033.mspx
Sep 04
GPO, Uncategorized, Windows Server 2003, Windows XP GPDBPA, GPMC, Windows 2003, Windows XP No Comments
It took me some time more than just last weekend to checkout the tool delivered from MS but here are my first thoughts about this tool.
First a print screen of the program:
Until today I have only run the program on two domain controllers so I haven’t really tested the tool completely but I have found some parts which you might find interesting.
First of all you should check the page named Critical Issues of course.
For me I got two errors here when I tried on my DC.
About the first error it complained about “Enterprise Domain Controllers” security group didn’t have the “Apply Group Policy” access which was correct so I now recieved this information and could open GPMC and correct the error.
Second error I’m a bit confused about since on Windows 2003 (and earlier) normally don’t have DFS running (if you don’t configure it of course). It’s using FRS for replication of SYSVOL and not DFS. I think this is a mistake from MS because I suspect the tool also has been designed with Windows Server 2008 kept in mind since it’s using DFS-R and not FRS and I think that’s why it’s watching the status of this service.
If you continue at “All Issues” you can find even more information. Some parts are information and some parts errors. I got a lot of errors which I don’t really understand. For example it complained about that:
However the tool has also “Tree reports” which tells you a lot about your GPO’s so if you know what you are doing you can find some useful information about your GPO’s in this tool instead of searching for it using AdsiEdit for example.
As conclusion you can say that the tool has some improvements that need to be done before you can fully benefit from it but it’s a great start if you aren’t using anything today and I would recommend everyone to check it out and at least see if it tells you if you have any errors. 
There are some other tools available on the market which you might want to check you if you don’t find this tool useful enough. You can find links on the Group Policy homepage
Sep 01
GPMC, GPO, Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista GPMC, GPO, Windows 2008, Windows Vista 6 Comments
Maybe you have, or not, noticed that there has been as small discussion about GPMC in Windows Vista SP1 since the release of the “Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Beta White Paper“.
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
Aug 22
Active Directory, GPO, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista, Windows XP Active Directory, GPO, Vista, Windows, Windows 2003, Windows 2008, Windows XP, Wireless Network No Comments
Depending on which system you use you have some different options if you want to configure wireless policys using Group Policy.
Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008: These has it as default that you can configure wireless policys using GPO so nothing needs to be done.
Windows 2003: Depending on which level of servicepack you have installed you might need to install “Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) support for Wireless Network (IEEE 802.11) Policies is available for Windows Server 2003″. Note that this will not let you configure WPA2 wireless policys. You will need Windows Vista och Windows Server 2008 for that.
Windows XP: First requirement is that you need to have Windows Server 2003 AD Schema in your AD. Second requirement is that you need atleast SP1 for XP.
From you Windows 2003 server (located at C:\Windows\System32) copy the files wlsnp.dll, wlstore.dll and ws03res.dll. Then register wlsnp.dll using “regsvr32 wlsnp.dll”.
Now this has registrered a new snap-in for Wireless Network Policy.
Side-note: For Windows XP to be able to process WPA2 policys you will need to install “Update for Windows XP (KB917021)”
Windows 2000: Sorry, no can do…
Aug 20
GPMC, GPO, Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista GPMC, GPO, Vista, Windows 2008 4 Comments
Introduced in the new GPMC for Windows Vista/Windows 2008 is adding comments of your own to settings you make in a GPO.
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!
Aug 20
GPMC, GPO, Windows Server 2008 GPMC, GPO, StarterGPO, Windows 2008 No Comments
In Windows 2008 they have introduced Starter GPO’s. This is some sort of template with which you can create real GPO’s with this as base for further editing and also with these templates it will be easier to have templates in a larger environment where you have several persons creating GPO’s, for example at department level.
. 
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.
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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.
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