Group Policy. Jeremy Moskowitz

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СКАЧАТЬ focus on using Group Policy within an Active Directory environment, where it affects the most machines.

      A percentage of the settings explored and discussed in this book are available to member or stand-alone Windows machines – which can either participate (that is, be “joined” to Active Directory) or not participate (that is, it’s “non-domain-joined”) in an Active Directory environment.

      However, the Folder Redirection settings (discussed in Chapter 10) and the Software Distribution settings (discussed in Chapter 11) are not available to stand-alone machines (that is, computers that are not participating in an Active Directory domain). In some cases, I will pay particular attention to non–Active Directory environments. However, most of the book deals with the more common case; that is, we’ll explore the implications of deploying Group Policy in an Active Directory environment.

      The “Too Many Operating Systems” Problem

      If we line up all the operating systems that you (a savvy IT person) might have in your corporate world, we would likely find one or more of the following (presented here in date-release order):

      ● Windows 2000 (Workstation and Server), RTM through SP4

      ● Windows Server 2003, RTM through SP2

      ● Windows XP, RTM through SP3

      ● Windows Vista, RTM through SP2

      ● Windows Server 2008, RTM (known as SP1, actually) through SP2

      ● Windows 7 RTM, through SP1

      ● Windows Server 2008 R2, through SP1

      ● Windows Server 2012, RTM

      ● Windows Server 2012 R2

      ● Windows 8 client, RTM

      ● Windows 8.1 client, RTM

      ● Windows 8.1 Update 1

      ● Windows 10, RTM

      ● Windows Server 2016, RTM

      For the love of Pete (whoever Pete is), that’s a lot of potential operating systems. Okay, okay – perhaps you don’t have all of them. You likely don’t have any more Windows 2000 (or maybe you do, tucked in a back room somewhere, quietly processing something or other).

      The point, however, is that Group Policy can apply to all of these systems. Under most circumstances, “old stuff” will work correctly on newer machines. That is, generally, something that could affect, say, an XP machine will also (generally) continue to affect a Windows 10 machine.

      With that in mind, here’s an example of what I’m not going to do. I’m not going to show you an example of something in the book, then say something like, “and this example is valid for Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 8.1 Update 1, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows 10, and Windows Server 2016.”

      My head (and yours) will just explode if I do that and you need to read it each time.

      So, here’s what I am going to do. You’ll read my discussion about something, then I’ll say something like, “and this example is valid for Windows XP and later.” That would mean that the thing I’m about to show you (for example, a policy setting) should work A-OK for XP and later machines (all the way to Windows 10 and also usually for servers, like Windows Server 2016, too). Similarly, if I say, “and this is valid for Windows Vista and later,” that means you’ll be golden if the target machine is Windows Vista and later (all the way through Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016).

      Of course, there are a handful of exceptions: things that only work on one particular operating system in a possibly peculiar way. For instance, there are a handful of Windows Vista–only settings that aren’t valid for Windows 7 and Windows 8. There are Windows 10–specific settings that won’t work on older machines. Again, I’ll strive for clarity regarding the exceptions – but the good news is, those are few and far between.

      If you get lost, here’s a quick cheat sheet to help you remember “which machines act alike”:

      ● Windows 2000 Workstation and Windows Server

      ● Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP

      ● Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista

      ● Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2

      ● Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012

      ● Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2

      ● Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016

      Just to be even more specific, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows 10, and Windows Server 2016 are ludicrously close brothers. They look alike, throw the same temper tantrums, and enjoy the same kinds of movies. But they’re not identical. They are, in fact, different, but in most cases, they’re super-duper similar and will react the same way when poked.

      For this edition of the book, we decided to make a conscious choice about how to present Group Policy. Most of the walk-throughs, examples, and screen shots in the book will be of Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016.

      Since I wrote the last edition of this book, two friends have passed away. Those friends, of course, are Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. It’s impossible to know how much XP is still out there, but my unscientific guess would be that 30 percent of the PCs in the business world are still using XP as I write these words. That’s not a lot, but it’s certainly not a little either.

      As far as I’m concerned though, XP and Windows Server 2003 are dead ends. I mean, they really are: Microsoft has stopped supporting them except in extreme circumstances and special handling cases.

      But I do want to be super-clear about something: I am also specifically going to note and talk about the differences between the various operating systems. For instance, I’ll definitely be expressing some concepts as originally found in Windows 2000, and also Windows XP and Windows Vista – things that were originally in these operating systems’ behaviors but are absent or changed now.

      When explaining Group Policy, I like to explain how Group Policy evolved from Windows 2000 through Windows XP and Vista and now on to Windows 10. I like to talk about the “old-school” stuff sometimes, because I find it helps explain why Windows does some things today that seem, well, odd or confusing. If I explain the older operating systems, for example, Windows 2000 and Windows XP, it’s actually easier to understand modern Windows. But as far as actual examples go in this book, sayonara XP (and Windows Server 2003). When it’s necessary to get a deeper perspective on details of Windows XP, I might refer you to previous editions of this book.

      And now, a quick word about Windows Vista.

      Yes, friends. Vista happened.

      We also cannot deny the existence of Windows Vista and that it actually came and went without anyone caring at all.

      That being said, even though Microsoft “didn’t quite get the taste right” with regard to Windows Vista, the individual ingredients continue to be the base of our Windows soup going forward. So, that means Windows 7, 8, and 10 are honestly very minor upgrades from Vista.

      And СКАЧАТЬ