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)

Group Policy - The Basics

I mentioned in the preface to this book that Group Policy is often underutilized in our corporate environments, and I genuinely believe that to be true. It's not a centralized management technology for our servers and workstations—no, it is the centralized management technology for our servers and workstations. Group Policy is built right in; there are no extra parts to install or configure, and there are no extra costs or add-ons that are required. When you build an Active Directory domain, you automatically build everything that is needed to start using Group Policy to push configuration and security settings to all of the users and devices attached to that domain.

If your day job requires you to touch Domain Controller servers, you should have a working knowledge of Group Policy to do your job well. Even if you work in IT desktop support and never interact with the Windows Server operating system, you can still help your company to build more manageable, more secure computers for your workforce by understanding what is possible with the Group Policy engine. Wouldn't it be great to be able to make intelligent suggestions to the Active Directory team about settings or policies that might be pushed out to those desktop computers that are under your jurisdiction?