Archive for 'Tips & Tricks'

Using Group Policy to Manage the Internet Explorer Popup Blocker Allow List

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Using Group Policy to Manage the Internet Explorer Popup Blocker Allow List

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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Automating Group Policy Preferences Drive Mapping with PowerShell

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Automating Group Policy Preferences Drive Mapping with PowerShell

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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Comparing GPOs to a Baseline Using GPO Compare

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One of the cool things about our GPO Compare product is it’s support for PowerShell. The product ships with a PowerShell cmdlet called Compare-SDMGPO that lets you compare live and backed-up GPOs–just like the GUI. We can use this capability to automate the comparison of live GPOs to baseline backups. For example, let’s say you have a baseline template GPO backup from one of Microsoft’s best practices security guides and you want to know if your live GPOs ...

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Leveraging Group Policy Preferences Item-Level Targeting from “Downlevel” Group Policy

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Recently I’ve had some conversations with folks that related to their irritation that “legacy” Group Policy settings such as Admin. Templates, Security Settings, Software Installation, etc. could not benefit from the fine-grained “Item-Level-Targeting” (ILT) feature that is available with Group Policy Preferences settings. Most of us Group Policy MVPs have had this on our wish list for a while, and, understanding GP structure and internals the way I do, I realized that this would not be an easy fix for ...

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