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)

GPO version numbers

Troubleshooting Group Policy is often a matter of investigation on the client side, then making corresponding changes inside the server infrastructure (GPMC). Occasionally, you may suspect that something goofy is going on at the server level, perhaps that updates or changes that you make to GPOs are not being properly put into place. Group Policy has a bit of a change-management procedure built in, where it keeps track of version numbers for each GPO inside Active Directory.

These GPO version numbers are visible by selecting any GPO inside GPMC, and then visiting the Details tab. Here, I have created a brand-new GPO that does not yet contain any settings, and navigated my way into the Details tab immediately after GPO creation:

You can see that there are separate version numbers for User and Computer. These numbers are tracking changes made inside the User...