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Questions tagged [group-policy]

Group Policy is a built-in feature of the Microsoft Windows operating systems. Group Policy allows administrators to automatically configure myriad options within the OS. These policies can be configured, and applied, either locally to the computer via Local Group Policy or remotely within an Active Directory environment.

Group Policy is a built-in feature of the Microsoft Windows operating systems. Group Policy allows administrators to automatically configure myriad options within the OS. These policies can be configured, and applied, either locally to the computer via Local Group Policy or remotely within an Active Directory environment.

Microsoft has added Group Policy Preferences Client Side Extensions, formerly a third-party tool called PolicyMaker, to its in-support Windows OSes. The CSEs greatly extend the number features which can be configured via Group Policy.

See the following links for more details.

http://gpsearch.azurewebsites.net - Searchable list of configurable group policies http://blogs.technet.com/grouppolicy - Microsoft’s official Group Policy blog http://blogs.technet.com/askds - Ask Directory Services is the official blog from Microsoft engineers supporting group policy and other related AD technologies

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Disable Windows Server Network Locations

I'm not sure what exactly this feature is called. But in Windows Server 2008, it has the Vista Public/Private/Domain locations. This makes sense for laptops, and none at all for servers. My problem is that sometimes some network adapters decide…
MichaelGG
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How to let non-admins manage selected domain groups' membership?

I'm on Windows Server 2012, Active Directory is on and working. All the project we manage have 2 dedicated groups, one for managers with access to all related files (including invoices, timetables and whatever they need to manage the project, or at…
Bard
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How to set the Internet Explorer Home Page via GPO?

I need to set the default home page for the entire domain via GPO. Where is the IE Home Page Policy located?
Mikael Dúi Bolinder
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Prevent IE10 from creating WebCache through Group Policy

IE10 implemented the WebCache which appears to be the new way of doing Temporary Internet Files. The location of this is C:\Users\\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\WebCache In my situation we have a terminal server where the user profiles are…
Melikoth
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Should you force a reboot after pushing out Windows updates?

I'm finding that most users ignore the "There are updates ready to be installed, click here to install" message that WSUS pushes out. Until now we haven't forced the install but I'm thinking about changing the group policy to enforce updates…
GollyJer
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How do you manage Java in your Windows/Active Directory environment?

Like I suppose a lot of people, we have a Windows/Active Directory environment and a lot of internal line of business apps that require Java. Our experience is that Java does not play nice in such a corporate network environment. Initial…
Maximus Minimus
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How can I edit local security policy from a batch file?

I am trying to write a utility as a batch file that, among other things, adds a user to the "Deny logon locally" local security policy. This batch file will be used on hundreds of independent computers (not on a domain and aren't even on the same…
Stephen Jennings
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What can be done to properly re-enable the Windows Firewall on a domain?

BACKGROUND/RESEARCH I honestly believe that questions like this one: Using GPO in Active Directory domain to force workstations Windows Firewall to disabled - how? existed because Windows Admins in general were taught long ago that: "the easiest…
TheCleaner
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Is MSIZAP still useful, or is it obsolete?

I update flash using MSI files installed by group policy. However, with every update, about a third of the workstations fail to update (Windows Vista and Windows 7 32/64-bit editions). In the event logs, this message appears: "Adobe Flash Player 11…
Force Flow
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Group Policy Result summary says DC is member of "BUILTIN\Administrators"

Whenever I run the Group Policy Result wizard and select a Domain Controller as the target computer, the summary shows BUILTIN\Administrators in the list of "Security Group Membership when Group Policy was applied" under Computer Configuration, as…
Mathias R. Jessen
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Applocker vs Software restriction policy

The goal is to prevent users from running unwanted programs on a terminal server. I have read many articles from Microsoft and others saying that the new Applocker feature is 100% better than the old Software Restriction Policy and is recommended…
gpo1278
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Windows 2008 R2 CA and auto-enrollment: how to get rid of >100,000 issued certificates?

The basic problem I'm having is that I have >100,000 useless machine certificates cluttering up my CA, and I'd like to delete them, without deleting all certs, or time jumping the server ahead, and invalidating some of the useful certs on…
HopelessN00b
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What is the best (free) tool to wrap an .exe into a MSI?

I'm looking at deploying some software via GPSI and the current version of the software is distributed as a .exe so I need to convert it to an MSI file. furthermore, why does MS still distribute some of its software (WMI Tools) as .exe
GNUix
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What is the order group policy settings are applied?

So I have been reading the document "Group Policy processing and precedence". I get that policies are applied in the order of local, site, domain, organizational unit, child organizational unit. The article isn't clear about the order that things…
Zoredache
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What is the industry standard method for administering the change of the local administrator password for all machines on a domain?

Although there appears to be three available options, one of which is actually secure, there seems to be only two available choices that will be able to impact machines that are not powered on at the time of change or are mobile and were not on the…
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