Microsoft Monday moved to improve its portfolio of management tools by acquiring DesktopStandard, which develops software that uses group policy for managing computers.

DesktopStandard develops a range of tools that extend Microsoft’s native Group Policy technology, which is supported on Windows 2000, XP and Windows Server 2003, and works in conjunction with Active Directory. DesktopStandard’s products integrate with and extend Microsoft’s Group Policy Management Console (GPMC).

Microsoft’s Group Policy lets administrators manage, customize and lock down desktop and server settings based on a set of policies maintained in the directory. The policies, for example, can prevent users from changing settings and can also disable services such as USB ports to prevent use of removable storage devices.

Despite its name, DesktopStandard’s software is used to manage both desktops and servers.

Microsoft did not announce terms of the deal, which it said closed Sept. 29. The company plans to continue selling and supporting Desktop Standard’s product under that name until it can develop new product naming and a road map, according to company officials.

“As we make more investment around the GPMC, customers were asking for more policies, more settings you can configure, more to manage your environment,” says Praerit Garg, senior director of the Windows enterprise management division at Microsoft. “The other area was around change management because multiple administrators have to manipulate those [group policy] objects.”

Experts say change management is key across a number of domains for corporate users.

“Change management is fundamental to effective security and regulatory compliance management,” says Scott Crawford, an analyst with Enterprise Management Associates in Boulder, Colo. “If you don’t do change management right, or even do it well, not only will you run security and compliance risks you are liable to have a huge percentage of your IT service issues be a direct consequence of poorly managed change.”

Grag adds that it's too early to say if DesktopStandard’s features and products will be integrated into Windows or be added to its emerging line of management tools under the System Center banner.

“This is good for any organization that uses group policy as long as [Microsoft] integrates it well,” says Jeremy Moskowitz, who runs the GPanswers.com Web site and conducts group policy training and seminars worldwide. “Obviously, Group Policy has grown up. If Microsoft is spending time, money and resources integrating this and making its in-the-box management tools better, then it shows that people have already given Group Policy a look to figure out if it is their way to do management and clearly the answer is yes.”