Group Policy Preferences
Session Objectives And Agenda Group Policy Preferences High level Overview New Extensions details New Concepts Preferences Reporting Common Questions Changes
Origination Where did it come from? Acquired DesktopStandard in Oct Extend investment in Group Policy PolicyMaker and GPOVault PolicyMaker Extensions made available in Windows Server 2008 as Group Policy Preferences GPOVault Advanced Group Policy Management (AGPM) available through Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) for Software Assurance
High level overview Group Policy Preferences New extensions for Group Policies GPMC only (Not local policy) Components Snap-in Extensions Client Side Extensions (CSE) Supported Platforms Windows Server 2008 Windows Vista Windows XPWindows Server 2003 Snap-inIncludedRSATN/A CSEsIncludedDownload
New Extensions What do these new extensions offer? Preference Settings Not true “Policy” More control of desktop – More Settings! Not limited to policy aware applications Ease administration through rich UI Better targeting New concepts
Preference vs. Policy PolicyPreference Restrict users from changing Higher precedence Registry policy locations HKLM/Software/Policies HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Windows/ CurrentVersion/Policies HKCU/Software/Policies HKCU/Software/Microsoft/Windows/ CurrentVersion/Policies User may change Applications not policy aware – no changes Change back to Admin setting next policy refresh Tattooing – NO! Custom ADM(X) Only Remove when no longer Preferences compliment Policies Configure My Documents folder on start menu
More Settings Control PanelWindows Settings Folder Options Scheduled Tasks Services Power Options Drive Maps Folders Shortcuts Shares Registry Applications Extensible!
Demo Preferences vs Policy
Rich UI Familiar experience Makes it easy to find Easy to manage Better control of individual settings – Red/Green Powerful browsers
Better Targeting Item level targeting, not GPO level Robust targeting 29 types Boolean logic (And, Or, Not) Grouping Windows APIs – not WMI Intuitive UI No need to learn query languages Powerful browsers
Demo User Interface & Targeting
New Concepts Multiple instances Drag and drop Action modes (Create, Replace, Update & Delete) Remove when no longer applicable Descriptions/Comments
Demo New Concepts
Reporting Settings Reports New extension settings, targeting, etc. show Group Policy Results Item-level Targeting does not show Shows winning items Does not necessarily reflect final settings Group Policy Modeling Assumes all targeting return true
Common Questions Will these setting run along side PolicyMaker settings? How is it licensed? Can I upgrade from PolicyMaker?
Changes from PolicyMaker Vista Support Application Extensions & Mail Profiles Not included with Windows Server 2008 Will be available as separate download after Windows Server 2008 is released Internet Explorer 7 support New filtering / targeting UI Dropped support for Windows 2000
Resources TechNet Library Knowledge Base Forums TechNet Magazine Security bulletins User Groups Newsgroups E-learning Product Evaluations Videos Webcasts V-labs Blogs MVPs Certification Chats learn support connect subscribe Link to Group Policy TechNet page Group Policy Wiki Group Policy Team Blog DesktopStandard Website