Admittedly, it would be great if starter GPOs could incorporate settings from the Software Settings and Windows Settings nodes. However, because those nodes involve interacting services (such as the Windows Installer service), their settings are more complex, domain-dependent, and therefore inherently less portable than pure registry-based policies. Maybe we’ll see these settings supported in starter GPOs version 2, but for now, we must live with this limitation…although bear in mind that once you have created a GPO based on a starter GPO, you can come back in and edit that child GPO to have whatever settings you want, anywhere in the hierarchy.
But first things first. The basic technique is to create a starter GPO with the Administrative Templates settings you want, then right-click it and choose the New GPO from Starter GPO command to create a new GPO that will include those settings. Normally you would tweak the new GPO for its intended application by modifying or adding to the registry settings already there. The idea is that you save time by not having to build similar GPOs from scratch. Finally, you would link the new GPO to its intended AD structure (site, domain, or OU).
As far as maintenance goes, you can back up starter GPOs by right-clicking the Starter GPOs container and choosing Back Up All, or you can right-click an individual starter GPO and choose Back Up. Personally, I would have created an option in the GPMC to back up everything – regular GPOs and starter GPOs – with one command, but that’s not how Microsoft set things up. So be aware that backing up the Group Policy Objects container omits the starter GPOs. Also be aware that you can only restore a starter GPO to the domain where it was originally built.
You can also use the GPMC to view and print settings for starter GPOs, just as with ordinary GPOs.
See recent blog posts…
How do Starter GPOs Work? Part 1
Everything you need to know about Server 2008 Group Policy Objects (GPOs)
Server Manager – One-stop shop for Server Administration
