We're pleased to inform that four new Visual C# samples have been published to the MSDN Library that demonstrate using the Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) Class Library to perform some basic GP tasks. Note that all samples include step-by-step...

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...

How to: use F5-F6-F7-F8 to control what settings you want pushed out, lock down the Advanced tab with a preference setting to act like policy Last time I talked about how to use F5-F8 keys to use the glanularity that we love so much about Preferences...

Last week, I introduced explain text and User Account Control policies; which are two new features with Security Policy in Windows Vista. I decided this week to keep it brief (or at least try). This week, I will introduce new policy settings for User...

Have you ever wanted to configure a preference item to include a specific user name and password? You can do so in several types of preference items, but you should first consider the security ramifications of embedding a user name and password in a preference...

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...

Quick note to let you all know that today we released a GPP update hotfix. We do plan to have this released to Windows Update also and the Download Center though for now you can get it from Microsoft Product Support . A quick note too - when you go...

In a previous blog post I looked at understanding the raw GPO version number . The example I gave in that article was the version number associated with a local Group Policy object (GPO). Now, let's look at the version number associated with a domain...

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=116434 Administrative templates provide Group Policy setting information for the items that appear under Administrative Templates. Group Policy tools use Administrative template files to populate policy settings...

The Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) provides a comprehensive set of COM interfaces that you can use to script many of the operations supported by the console. This download contains a set of sample scripts that make use of these interfaces. ...

As many of you know Group Policy troubleshooting can be a bit of a challenge. If you have not made use of the Group Policy operational logs that were introduced in Windows Vista, you are missing out on an extremely handy troubleshooting tool. On any Vista...

Ashley McGlone has a great script up for merging GPOs together through powershell. I wish I had this script five years ago. At the time I was searching for a way to combine or merge GPOs, but there simply wasn’t a way to do it. And today there still isn...

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...

Im seeing tons of people on forums trying to find the Group Policy Changes in XP SP3 and Windows 7. It seems that both Google and Bing dont return the relevant results if you search for “Group Policy Changes XP SP3” because of all the noise of people...

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...

We've got two new videos for you! The TechNet guys dropped by to ask Lilia some questions (always a good idea, in my opinion), and in return she dropped some knowledge. http://edge.technet.com/Media/Group-Policy-Search-with-Lilia/ - Did you know...

The following is a sample script that sets a Preference registry value in a GPO, then compares that same value to all of the GPO's linked in the same domain. If the value is not already set in a linked GPO, the new GPO is linked to that domain as well...

Tales from the Community – Deleting registry values Okay, I've seen this question in the Technet Forums that basically goes like this: " Hey I have this reg script that deletes a value off the registry for me. The .reg file does [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT...

Hey, Scripting Guy! has a great series of posts around Group Policy & scripting: Using group policy cmdlets for backup and restore Test AD replication with group policy cmdlets How to compare 2 GPOs offline ( Part II )

Time, once again, to introduce you to new Group Policy settings included with Windows Vista. I've set aside this week and next week to write about new Group Policy settings that control Windows Defender. Spyware is software that typically collects...

The Group Policy settings reference spreadsheet that covers the available administrative template settings and security settings for Windows Server 2012, Windows 8, and all earlier versions of Windows is now available in the download center here: http...

Last week I introduced new Power Management policy settings included in Windows Vista. In the first of a two-part series, I wrote about Button, Hard Disk, and Notification settings. This week, I complete my review of Power Management by writing about...

Blog time again.. Previously, I wrote about two of the policy settings under the computer configuration. Today, I finish writing about the Windows Logon Options policy category by covering the remaining policy setting under the computer configuration...

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...

Jeff Hicks, one of Microsoft’s Powershell MVPs, has written a great script for managing GPO backups : The GroupPolicy module from Microsoft offers a great deal of functionality from a command line. In terms of regular maintenance or administration it...