Customer Reviews

Group Policy: Fundamentals, Security, and the Managed Desktop

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

What can I say...If you want to learn about Group Policy and how it works, especially on the new Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 - this is the book for you.
First the bad: You're going to need to setup a few computers to go along with this book. They can be old PC's from your office , virtual computers on a Server or virtual computers on the Internet. They will give you info on how to do this in the book.

Why these computers? Because you're going to be following along in the book and applying everything you learn to these computers. You will set new policies and then test them on the different operating systems and users from this network of computers you created. So now you see in real time how Group Policy actually works and what it does. To me that's what makes this book so great; your applying everything you learn right away to a real computer network. So now you can see these changes actually take place which not only helps me remember what different settings do but now I better understand why and how it works.

I enjoyed Jeremy Moskowitz writing style which provided humor at times but also explained in plain English subjects of Group Policy I just never understood properly until I read this book.
In the end you will learn everything from the basics to the most advanced settings. Plus there are plenty of web links and references to other material in the book, so you will have plenty to go on after your done with this book and may want more advanced learning.

This is the Bible of Group Policy as far as I am concerned. A must read. A good reference to go back to.

1. Great information.
2. Great Examples you can follow as you read.
3. Good tips on gotchas and covers multiple versions of Windows.
4. Kindle form made it easy to take with me and read.
5. Extra chapters were good.

Some of the not so goods:

1. I got it in Kindle format, and the diagrams and graphics sucked! I could not get a lot of them to show up very good no matter how I formatted it on the screen.
2. You would think book marks would help going back, but I found it better if I copied the bookmarks to my One Note and then kept them there.
3. Extra chapters as I said were good, but I was a bit exhausted from reading it, and I will have to go back and read again.

This book is a solid reference and an easy and (almost) enjoyable read. The author makes a good effort write in an interesting and fun way, which is a good accomplishment for what is a fairly dry and deeply technical subject. The content is strong to with up to date, useful information on current OS's. By keeping the information pragmatic you have a very useful reference book, on a subject that is still mysterious for many administrators.

If you are looking for a resource on Windows Group Policy I don't know of any better. I've been working with Group Policy since 2000 and learned a lot from this book. A must have for your tech library if you are a Windows Administrator.

Not like the other technical books out there walking you through some very dry configs, the author takes a different approach in the way he relays some of the concept behind group policy... Interesting to say the least.

Review Date: Dec 31st 2010

I have started reading this book --but I am not done with it yet and found very good information on group policies whether implementing it locally or in a domain. I will continue to update this review as I further read many of the chapters.