Book Image

Mastering Windows Group Policy

By : Jordan Krause
5 (1)
Book Image

Mastering Windows Group Policy

5 (1)
By: Jordan Krause

Overview of this book

This book begins with a discussion of the core material any administrator needs to know in order to start working with Group Policy. Moving on, we will also walk through the process of building a lab environment to start testing Group Policy today. Next we will explore the Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) and start using the powerful features available for us within that interface. Once you are well versed with using GPMC, you will learn to perform and manage the traditional core tasks inside Group Policy. Included in the book are many examples and walk-throughs of the different filtering options available for the application of Group Policy settings, as this is the real power that Group Policy holds within your network. You will also learn how you can use Group Policy to secure your Active Directory environment, and also understand how Group Policy preferences are different than policies, with the help of real-world examples. Finally we will spend some time on maintenance and troubleshooting common Group Policy-related issues so that you, as a directory administrator, will understand the diagnosing process for policy settings. By the end of the book, you will be able to jump right in and use Group Policy to its full potential.
Table of Contents (12 chapters)

Launching the console locally

The most straightforward approach to opening the GPMC is to launch it right from an Active Directory DC server. If you happen to be logged into a DC anyway, or are even sitting at the console, there are numerous different ways to open this tool. The one that you choose to employ regularly is completely your preference, but knowing various ways to accomplish the same task is always helpful in the Microsoft Windows world, so let's take a minute and cover the different ways that you could go about launching the GPMC from a DC.

Server Manager – the most common way

You have probably noticed (and perhaps been annoyed by it) that when you log into most Windows Server operating systems, there...