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)

Troubleshooting tools and procedures

When in a bind and needing to troubleshoot something inside Group Policy, there are numerous commands and tools at our disposal. Group Policy is an interaction between multiple systems. As such, you will almost never be troubleshooting from a single place. If attempting to diagnose the addition or disappearance of settings on a client workstation, you will likely be touching that local machine to see what's going on. Once you have a handle on what is or is not happening with the client, chances are that you will discover that some kind of change must have been made within the server infrastructure, which caused the symptoms you are now experiencing on that client machine. So you will probably find yourself logging in to a Domain Controller, or at least launching GPMC from your management workstation, to check out that side of things.

And...