Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
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Network
—A host of network settings can be controlled on the target computers, including
but not limited to Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) parameters, DNS client
settings, Microsoft Peer-to-Peer Networking Services (discussed in Chapter 8), network
connection settings, and offline files configuration.
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Printers
—Policies in this folder control how computers interact with network printers,
including automatic printer publishing in Active Directory, automatic printer pruning, and
Internet printing parameters.
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System
—This folder contains more than 30 subnodes. Some computer functions that can
be controlled in this node include disk quotas, group policy, system logon, power manage-
ment, and user profiles.
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Windows Components
—This folder contains more than 50 subnodes with policies for
configuring the CD/DVD autoplay feature, Internet Explorer, and Windows Update,
among others. Some settings in this folder have an identical counterpart in the User
Configuration node. When a conflict exists, the setting in Computer Configuration takes
precedence.
An additional node under Administrative Templates called All Settings dis-
plays all Administrative Template settings and can be sorted in alphabeti-
cal order. You can select View, Filter Options from the GPME menu to list
policies by certain criteria or keywords, too.
Policies set under the User Configuration node follow a user wherever he or she logs on. As men-
tioned, this node has the same top-level folders as Computer Configuration: Software Settings,
Windows Settings, and Administrative Templates. Many of the policy categories are the same,
but there are important differences in the actual policies. Notably, because most security settings
and account policies apply to computers rather than users, the User Configuration node has far
fewer security settings. User Configuration policies tend to focus on the user working environ-
ment: Windows features the user can and can't access, the desktop look and feel, user profile set-
tings, and so forth. The following sections describing policies available in the User Configuration
node use an approach similar to the earlier “Policies in the Computer Configuration Node.”
The Software Installation extension performs the same function as in Computer Configuration—
deploying software to remote destinations—but has important differences in options and execu-
tion. A software package can only be assigned to a computer, but there are two options for
deploying software to users:
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Published
—A published application isn't installed automatically; instead, a link to install
the application is in Control Panel's Programs and Features (Vista and Server 2008) or
Add/Remove Programs (Windows XP). Administrators can assign a category to each pub-
lished application so that if many packages are published, they're listed under the assigned
category in Control Panel. Published applications can also be configured to install when
the user opens a file type associated with the application.
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Assigned
—Applications assigned to users are advertised as a link on the Start menu and
installed the first time the user opens a file type associated with the application or clicks
the link in the Start menu.
An advanced deployment is also possible and has options similar to those in the Computer
Configuration node.
Windows Settings contains seven subnodes, four of which have the same name as in the
Computer Configuration node:
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