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)

Enforcing GPOs

On the heels of a discussion about inherency blocking, why don't we spin things around and discuss an option that overrides that blocking. Boy, this almost sounds like we are working in an environment where the administrators are fighting for control.

While blocked inheritance is associated with an OU-level mentality, blocking the ability for GPOs to filter down into or beyond particular OUs, the option for enforcing GPOs is flagged to the GPO link itself. It is a fairly simple setting; if you have a GPO that you want to enforce to be processed, even blowing through the borders of inherency blocking, this is the ticket.

To enforce a GPO link, all you need to do is right-click on the link and choose Enforced, as seen in the following screenshot. Here, I am enforcing my Set Desktop Wallpaper to Blue 1 that is linked to the root of the domain. This means that...