Group Policy has always been one of Active Directory's (AD's) big selling points, and in Windows Server 2003, Microsoft has greatly extended Group Policy Object (GPO) functionality and management through the release of the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) snap-in. Because GPMC is a large, complex topic, you need to have a good understanding of the subject to get the most out of GPOs in your environment. For some background about GPMC and to download the snap-in, I recommend you read the Microsoft article "Enterprise Management with the Group Policy Management Console" (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/gpmc) and the Group Policy Management Console Reference on the Microsoft Web site at http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/gpmc/gpmc/group_policy_management_console_reference.asp.
The arrival of Windows 2003 opens the doors to some great new scripting opportunities, not the least of which is GPMC's support for automation. As a result, you can now script GPOs to perform common policy-based tasks. Let's review the basics of enabling and disabling a GPO; linking and unlinking a GPO from a site, domain, or organizational unit (OU); and configuring other options that you can automate within the GPMC. . . .
Register
