I just blogged about this very question over on my blog . Essentially the question we hear a lot is do I need to update Schema/Active Directory/Servers/functional modes etc to support a new client OS version. I wont revisit that Sometimes theres a...

These are some serious toys delivering a large punch of power from the suite formerly known as PolicyMaker. You don't need to have Windows Server 2008 or Vista SP1 to use the tools -- now called Group Policy preferences. They include more than 20 new...

Office 2007 System Administrative Templates (ADM) files are currently available for download at the following location. http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=78161 And everyone is asking, but where's the ADMX versions? Help, I want to administer Office...

Have you ever wished for a tool to help you identify Group Policy configuration problems…even those that, at first glance, might not seem to be related to Group Policy? How about a tool that can warn you if your Group Policy configuration might pose a...

Great News. The Group Policy team has published installation packages that distribute ADM files (below) for use with Windows XP SP2 and Windows Server 2003 SP1. Administrative Templates for Internet Explorer 7 for Windows Download from: http://go.microsoft...

I was thinking about my next blog entry a few weeks back. My research took me through various Web sites, message threads, and articles. Naturally, I wanted something not only pertinent to Group Policy, but also exciting and new (to quote the Love Boat...

Vista has the Power: Part 1 of 2 Last week I wrote about the policy settings that you use to control the Event Logging service. As promised, this week we move to the wonderful world of policy controlled Power Management. Windows Vista provides...

Now available, Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) is the collection of Windows Server management tools provided to enable IT professionals to manage their Windows Server infrastructure from their computers running Windows Vista with Service Pack...

If you've ever poked around to look at the raw GPO version number, you've probably wondered why is the number so huge and how does it get displayed as a much smaller value when you view the version number using GPMC. Let's look at the simplest example...

I know there's a lot of interest around Windows PowerShell. Here's some information you might be interested in as a Group Policy Administrator: A TechNet magazine article entitled, "Simplify Group Policy Administration with Windows PowerShell" by...

News from the Office 2007 team!!!! The 2007 Office System Administrative Template is available. This download includes: The updated Group Policy Administrative Template files (ADM files) The updated Office Customization Tool (OCT) The updated...

As noted on the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) blog announcing the latest MDOP release, AGPM 3.0 has RTM'd. For those customers licensed for MDOP, this means you'll have it in your hands around the first week of October 2008 via the MVLS site...

Molto faboloso! As of this morning, the Microsoft Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) pack is available for download in the following languages, in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. Language Code X86 X64 ...

This post is not explicitly about Group Policy, but we thought you'd find it useful for our content and any other content you navigate and read on Microsoft.com. Have you ever encountered a Microsoft URL that looks like http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink...

The scene: You want to set a registry key of a 3rd party application but you don’t want to write a custom ADMX file just to be able to configure it. Or you have some registry keys you set in logon scripts and you want to use the update interval of Group...

I mentioned this in the last post, here are some more examples. To download the script, check the 'Attachments' link by clicking on this post's title and then scrolling to the bottom. Quick refresher: This script’s usage is as follows: SearchGPOsForSetting...

We received an email from Daniel today. He’s done a great blog post on how to use Group Policy Preferences to deploy printer settings to workstations. I'm sure Lilia is with me on this though: we can think of plenty more reasons than just one to use GP...

As part of the official announcement on the MDOP blog , Advanced Group Policy Management 4.0 (AGPM) will be releasing in October to customers. With this release we had strong feedback on two main areas of improvement and an additional area that improves...

Alan and I had a great time presenting about Group Policy Preferences at TechEd Australia a few weeks ago. He did a quick demo in our session about configuring Power Schemes; here's the breakdown in more detail. He captures the idea of targeting power...

  You may be asking yourself, “What does infrastructure status have to do with Group Policy”. Well, group policy depends on other technologies to ensure that policy settings are replicated throughout your environment so that end users / computers...

This blog post is written by Judith, our technical writer, and based on an old blog post by Jeffrey Snover. ( http://blogs.msdn.com/b/powershell/archive/2007/01/11/sorting-out-groupby.aspx ) Jeffrey wrote a piece that showed how to sort system services...

Now that Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 have been released, we’d like to share with you some of the exciting enhancements that we’ve added for Group Policy. While we hear plenty of great things from people who use Group Policy, we also hear complaints...

Group Policy in Windows Server 2012: Using Remote GPUpdate If someone calls to say their computer doesn’t work quite right, the first thing you might have them do is run gpupdate /force to ensure they have the latest policy applied to their system. Now...

LiliaG: Reporting from Australia (TechEd Australia 2009) Almost everyone at the Brisbane User Infrastructure Group last night said their biggest priority with Group Policy is security settings. Box office ratings will have my believe that wizards are...

Hey – this is Florian from the GP Team’s MVPs again. It seems like some of you would like set up WMI filters. Let me show you how to use a tool called Scriptomatic to make it easier. Or, skip to the end to see how much faster it is to do the same thing...