This video describes the concept of “GPO Sprawl”, how it impacts you and how you can help clean up your Group Policy environment using GPO Exporter 1.5.
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22
MAY
MAY
0
While much is changing in Windows 8, the changes related to Group Policy are more modest. One of these modest changes is in the Resultant Set of Policy (RSoP) functionality, exposed through the Group Policy Results Wizard in GPMC. This wizard was always my first “go-to” tool when trying to troubleshoot GP Processing problems, and they’ve made it more useful in Windows 8.
The first thing you’ll notice is that the Summary tab on RSoP is completely different, as shown here:
The ...
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21
MAY
MAY
Using Group Policy to Manage the Internet Explorer Popup Blocker Allow List
Posted by: Darren Mar-Elia
A recent thread on the GPOGUY.COM GPTalk Mailing list prompted me to write about managing IE settings using Group Policy. In an article I wrote for Windows IT Pro Magazine in 2011, I talked about the various technologies in Group Policy that you can use to manage IE configuration. It’s definitely a mixed bag, with no less than 3 different policy areas that can be used, depending upon the setting and the desired effect. In ...
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18
MAY
MAY
I was reading Paul Thurrott’s most recent column on the Windows IT Pro Magazine website today. The column ostensibly talked about naming of features and products in Windows 8, but at the bottom, was this interesting tidbit,
“Blurring the lines in a way that’s almost diabolical, Microsoft recently announced that it’s introducing yet another form of PC/device management that will somewhat straddle the line between device-based management through EAS and full PC management with Active ...Continue Reading →
1
MAY
MAY
We’re here at MMS 2012 in Las Vegas this week (see a picture of our booth attached to this post!) talking to customers about their Group Policy needs. A couple of interesting themes emerged. One is kind of humorous. More often than not, when someone walked by and we asked whether they managed Group Policy, they would usually groan and say something like, “Unfortunately, yes”. That’s interesting because it seems like more folks find GP a drudgery rather than the ...
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17
APR
APR
Just a quick note that I finally got around to updating our freeware Group Policy Health Cmdlet to add module support for PowerShell v2. Hopefully this makes the cmdlet more discoverable for those of you using it in PowerShell v2 (probably everybody!). The module name is SDM-GPOHealth, so after running the install, just open PowerShell v2 and type:
import-module SDM-GPOHealth and you’ll be good to go!
And for more info on using the Health cmdlet, check out my Continue Reading →
15
APR
APR
Group Policy Consolidation and Optimization just got a lot easier! GPO Exporter 1.5 Ships!
Posted by: Darren Mar-Elia
I’m proud to announce that today we released GPO Exporter 1.5. This new release represents a huge step up in the arsenal of tools for analyzing and optimizing Group Policy deployments. I can’t tell you how many IT folks come to me and ask how they can streamline and reduce the number of GPOs they have deployed. But the problem is hard, with the sheer number of settings ...
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5
APR
APR
SDM Software will be exhibiting at this year’s upcoming Microsoft Management Summit (MMS) on April 16-19th in Las Vegas! If you’re attending MMS or are thinking about it, come on by our booth (#129) on the exhibit floor Monday-Thursday. We’ll be demo-ing some cool Group Policy management solutions, including some new products that we’re getting ready to announce! I’ll be in the booth all 4 days answering questions on Group Policy and SDM’s products. In addition, I’m pleased to ...
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26
MAR
MAR
One of the cool things I like about our Group Policy Automation Engine product is the scenarios that it’s open up by providing what is essentially an automation portal into GPOs. One of those key scenarios is the ability to automate additions and changes to Group Policy Preferences Drive Mappings, which is used by organizations large and small to map user drives at logon, and is largely replacing traditional ...
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26
MAR
MAR
One of the challenges of the GPMC’s reporting is that it is not easy to find GPOs that have had Deny ACEs (Access Control Entries) set on their delegation. Deny ACEs are typically used to deny a particular user, computer or group from applying a GPO. I always recommend that they’re used on an exception basis, for the very reason that they are hard to spot after the fact and can cause increased complexity in your Group Policy deployments. Deny ACEs don’t ...
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21
FEB
FEB
