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Welcome to GPOGUY.COM!

What is Windows Group Policy? Group Policy is the main configuration management technology available in Microsoft Windows. It leverages Active Directory and provides control over security configuration, desktop lockdown and software deployment, to name just a few things, in a Windows environment. Because of the power and complexity of Group Policy, many people find it daunting to use the technology to its fullest. That's why I created this site.

I have put together this site as a resource for all things Group Policy related--hopefully with more advanced information than you'll find elsewhere. I'll be adding more stuff as I can, including some cool scripts and Group Policy-related utilities that I and others are writing. Check out What's New below for the latest additions.

Also, if you have a need for commercial, fully supported Group Policy Management solutions, you can visit the company we started--SDM Software, for some innovative Group Policy management solutions.

Thanks for stopping by.

Darren Mar-Elia


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What's New

April, 4, 2008: SDM Software ships the news Desktop Policy Manager product to simplify desktop configuration management using Group Policy!

January 29, 2008: New PowerShell version of RGPRefresh remote GP refresh utility now available on the SDM Software Freeware page

November 9, 2007: New PowerShell cmdlets for GPMC now available on SDM Software Freeware Page

July, 03, 2007: New PowerShell cmdlet new-SDMgpo lets you use PowerShell to create new GPO!

March, 30, 2007: New get-SDMgpo PowerShell cmdlet for retrieving GPO information from a domain.

Feb, 22, 2007: Updated version of the Vista Central Store Creator Utility that fixes a bug with SYSVOL shares that were redirected to volumes other than the default. Also, a new VBScript that lets you disable the local GPO on pre-Vista systems can be found on the Tools page.

Jan, 26,2007: New Vista Central Store Creator Utility released. This simple tool provides a GUI for creating the Vista Central Store for ADMX and ADML files.

Jan, 25, 2007: I just did a quick update to gpolog.adm that adds the super-verbose option for userenv logging and also adds the ability to enable Software Restriction Policy logging.

Dec 28, 2006: Jorge de Almeida Pinto [MVP-DS] (http://blogs.dirteam.com/blogs/jorge/default.aspx) updated my event log ADM to provide additional Group Policy control of R2 Server's DFS-R, Forwarded Events and Hardware Events logs.

Dec 18, 2006: My new company, SDM Software, which makes Group Policy management products, released its first product today-- the GPHealth Reporter! -- which reports on the health of GP processing on a local or remote system.

Dec 12, 2006: Microsoft has released a nice paper describing how to use the new Group Policy features in Vista. I have a link to it here. It also includes an explanation of why logon scripts sometimes won't work in Vista and the workaround.

Nov 22, 2006: Finally! A new training video--"Using Administrative Templates Policy", on the Training Page

Nov 17, 2006: Microsoft released a new free download that let's you migrate custom ADM files to Vista's new ADMX format. It also includes a free ADMX editor to create ADMXs from scratch. You can get it here.

Nov 2, 2006: Now that IE 7 is here, you can prevent your users from getting it automatically in a Windows Update download by using a Group Policy template provided by MS. Check out the IE 7 Blocker Toolkit for the ADM file required to do this. Keep in mind that the setting in this ADM is a "preference", not a policy, and therefore must be disabled rather than set to "Not Configured" when you're ready to deliver IE 7.

Oct, 05, 06: The GPSI Viewer tool has been updated to include Date Created and Date Last Modified fields here

Sept 27, 06: Check out the port of my gpolog.adm file to the new Vista ADMX format on the gpolog Page

Sept. 15, 06: I've got a new whitepaper that I've written, entitled "How Secure is Group Policy?", that's on the DesktopStandard website at http://www.desktopstandard.com/whitepapers.aspx.

July 27, 06: Lots of tool updates! I've updated both the PolViewer and SIViewer (now called GPSI Viewer) utilities with some requested features. I've also got a new tool call WMIFTest that lets you view, print out and validate WMI Filters against computers in your environment so that you can see ahead of time where they will evaluate true or false. Check it out on the Tools page!

July 20, 06: I'll be presenting three GP and related sessions at the upcoming TechMentor and WinConnections conferences--both in Las Vegas this Fall. If you're interested, check them out at www.techmentorevents.com or www.winconnections.com. NOTE! If you plan to attend TechMentor, when registering, enter a promo code of "mar-elia" on the registration page so that they know you found out about the show from this site!

July 20, 06: New training video entitled, "Basic Group Policy Troubleshooting", on the Training page.

May 19, 06: New training video entitled, "Understanding Domain Account Policy", on the Training page.

May 18, 06: New version (1.6) of the rgprefresh utility that adds additional options for suppressing reboots and logoffs during a refresh event, on the Tools page.

May 5, 06: New version of Group Policy logging ADM file that includes some GPMC logging is available on the Tools page!.

April 4, 06: New version of rgprefresh utility is available on the Tools page!

March 21, 06: The latest training video, #100.4 is up on the Training page! This wraps up the 3-part training series on GPMC. Next, I'll be diving into individual GP features.

January 13, 06: Microsoft has released a number of new GP-related resources, including an FAQ, information on GP changes in Windows Vista and Longhorn server and information on the new ADMX template format coming in Vista. See the Resources page for links.

January 6, 06: Checking out the new Group Policy Training page, where I'm posting video training clips about all aspects of Group Policy! Check the ones I have out there now and let me know what you think!

December 21, 05: Well, there's a couple new things going on today. The first is that like everyone else on the planet, I've started a blog. And as you can imagine, its related to Group Policy. The nice people at dirteam.com are hosting it so check it out and let me know what you think. Speaking of the blog, the most recent posting on the blog is about the Registry.pol file, which holds the registry-related policy settings within a GPO. Within that blog entry I talk about my newest utility--PolViewer--which you can download from the Tools page on this site.

December 5, 05: Added new custom ADM template that lets you set event log size and retention methods for the AD, DNS and FRS logs on your AD Domain Controllers. These logs are not supported within the native event log settings under Computer Configuration\Windows Settings\Security Settings.

October 21, 05: Check out the FAQ page for an interesting new KB article that describes a hotfix that lets you ensure that the DC that handles requests for AD information is also the same one that handles requests for SYSVOL information. This solves the problem where a workstation might use one DC to get its list of GPOs to process and another DC to copy the settings from the GPTs for those GPOs.

Jun 7, 05: The new Group Policy book is out, published as part of the 7-book Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit, 2nd edition and also available individually for sale!! The book, called the "Windows Group Policy Guide", can also be purchased as part of the complete Resource Kit.

 

Apr 14, 05: I've created a page that shows a quick analysis of the differences in ADM files between the new Server 2003, SP1 release and the ADMs provided with XP, SP2. Check it out here.

Feb 4, 05: The IE Maintenance/AppData Folder Redirection bug in XP, SP2 is finally described on the KB and can be found at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/888254/EN-US

Jan 27, 05: A couple of new updates! First, Microsoft has launched a new web-based Group Policy resource--its called a "Wiki", at www.grouppolicywiki.com. Lots of good info there contributed by Microsoft folks as well as anyone who wants to contribute.

Second update is related to the IE Maintenance hotfix mentioned below. I've been told that that KB # is not correct, that it is just a placeholder that MS uses internally. I have yet to find a real KB article on this issue, but have heard from some folks that they got the fix from MS and it worked for them.

Dec 22 2004: UPDATE on the IE Maintenance/AppData Folder Redirection issue! Microsoft has released a hotfix for this problem that you can get by calling Microsoft support. There will be a KB article coming out to describe the issue. Its not out yet, but the article # will be 888254.

Nov/27/04: New links to two new Microsoft whitepapers on GP on the Resources page and a new tool for automatically converting ADMs to Excel files on the Tools page.

Nov/8/04 UPDATE: It appears that this IE Maintenance problem occurs when you are also using Folder Redirection policy to redirect Application Data. Microsoft is still working on the issue.

Oct/20/04: NOTE: I've seen several reports that people are having problems with IE Maintenance Policy not applying after installing XP, SP2 on their client machines. According to Microsoft representatives, this is a known issue that they are currently working on. I will post any updates that I hear about here!

Sept/21/04: New whitepaper on GP storage on the FAQs & Whitepapers page. Also more FAQs, including a new tip on how to log IE Maintenance policy processing!

Aug/29/04: Just Added! Subscribe to the GPTALK mailing list and the GPOGUY newsletter on the mailing list page

8/19/04: New GPTIME utility returns the last time Group Policy processing occurred on a local or remote machine and how long it took. Check it out on the Tools & Scripts page.

7/30/04: Free GPO-based utility for setting Power Management settings here

06/23/04: New information from Microsoft on updated policy settings for XP, SP2 here

06/05/04: Check out the new SIViewer utility, which lets you view all applications deployed via Group Policy, on the Tools & Scripts page.


 

 

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