Group Policy (surely Microsoft regrets that name every time someone like me points out that it doesn’t normally have anything to do with groups) keeps evolving in interesting ways with every new operating system. Vista gave us a thorough preview of the changes in Group Policy that find their fruition in Server 2008; here’s a quick run-through of the changes you should know about when planning your migration.
First off, the Group Policy Management Console, or GPMC, is now included with Server 2008. (It was also bundled with Vista, but it has been “un-bundled” from Vista as of Service Pack 1, nominally so that the product can be updated separately from the workstation operating system.) This console is where you can manage links, back up Group Policy Objects, product reports, create WMI filters, and perform security group filtering.
But the Server 2008 GPMC goes further. It provides the ability to comment your GPO’s, and even comment individual policy settings, as long as they fall in the Administrative Templates hierarchy. It also has improved search capabilities (although it’s called “filtering”). You can even create base GPO’s that can act as templates for other GPO’s; Microsoft calls these “starter GPO’s.” These are all welcome changes.
Another benefit to those of us who have to manage Group Policy is that you can create a central storage area on the network for the Group Policy “source code” files, formerly *.ADM and now *.ADMX to reflect their XML structure. These files are modular and topically organized; they load automatically if the GPO administrator is running Server 2008 or Vista (no more manual loading of ADM files!).
See recent blog posts…
Server Manager – One-stop shop for Server Administration
Back to the Future with Read-Only Domain Controllers
Windows Server 2008 Migration Considerations
