Everything you need to know about Server 2008 Group Policy Objects (GPOs)

For many years, word processing users have been building so-called template documents that form the starting point for creating a new document of a particular type. I remember creating a consulting contract template in WordPerfect ‘way back in 1986 when I started my consulting company. This was a big timesaver: when a new job came along, I just had to fill in a few blanks and create an appendix listing the work to be done.

An old Chinese proverb advises us to "preserve the old, but know the new." The old template concept has been preserved for us in the new Windows Server 2008 operating system, in the form of what Microsoft calls the starter GPO (GPO being short for "Group Policy Object").

The designation may be a bit misleading - when I first heard it, I thought it meant a GPO that Microsoft had created as a starting point for addressing a particular need, much like the old Intellimirror Scenarios did. (By the way, you can still learn a lot from those six GPOs, and if you've never seen them, go take a look. They can be found on the Microsoft TechNet Windows Server 2003 Technical Library; search for "Implementing Common Desktop Management Scenarios with the Group Policy Management Console." You may also be interested in the prebuilt GPOs included with the new Windows Server 2008 Security Guide; generate these with the GPO Accelerator program, provided with that guide.)

So, the starter GPO feature doesn't provide any predefined solutions for business scenarios, but it does give you the framework for building such solutions yourself. Over the next several posts, I'll be covering some common Server GPO questions:

• How do starter GPOs work?
• What software do you need to build and use them?
• When would you use a starter GPO?
• How do you actually create one?
• Can you share starter GPOs?

See recent blog posts...

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