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)

Manipulating Local Users and Groups

An enormous portion of any company's overall security posture is making sure that users have proper rights and permissions. You want everyone to be as restricted as possible, while still allowing them to perform the work they need to accomplish for their jobs. When a user logs into a Windows computer, they receive security permissions inside Windows based on what local group or groups they are members of. Out of the box, Standard users have the most restricted rights, Power Users are able to perform some heavier-duty tasks, Administrators have full control within Windows—you get the idea. There are multiple tiers of permissions baked into the operating system.

When your Windows computer is joined to a domain, there are some inherent changes automatically made to these groups. For example, the Domain Admins Active Directory group...