Microsoft® Windows® Group Policy Guide [Paperback]

Darren Mar-Elia (Author), Derek Melber (Author), William R. Stanek (Author), The Microsoft Group Policy Team (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 22, 2005 | ISBN-10: 0735622175 | ISBN-13: 978-0735622173

Get the in-depth information you need to use Group Policy to administer your enterprise system—direct from industry experts and the Microsoft Group Policy team. With Group Policy and Active Directory® directory service, administrators can take advantage of policy-based management to streamline the administration of users and computers throughout the enterprise—from servers running Windows Server 2003 or Windows 2000 Server to workstations running Windows XP Professional or Windows 2000 Professional. This essential resource explains how to simplify and automate administrative tasks, including policy enforcement, system updates, and software installations, as well as how to centralize the management of network resources. The CD provides essential utilities, custom ADMs, GPO spreadsheets, and more. It’s everything you need to help increase your efficiency while bolstering user productivity, security services, and system reliability.

A Note Regarding the CD or DVD

The print version of this book ships with a CD or DVD. For those customers purchasing one of the digital formats in which this book is available, we are pleased to offer the CD/DVD content as a free download via O'Reilly Media's Digital Distribution services. To download this content, please visit O'Reilly's web site, search for the title of this book to find its catalog page, and click on the link below the cover image (Examples, Companion Content, or Practice Files). Note that while we provide as much of the media content as we are able via free download, we are sometimes limited by licensing restrictions. Please direct any questions or concerns to [e-mail].

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

William R. Stanek has over 20 years of hands-on experience with advanced programming and development. He has written nearly 100 books including: Microsoft Windows Vista Administrator's Pocket Consultant, Windows Server 2008 Inside Out, Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Administrator's Pocket Consultant 2nd Edition, and Microsoft IIS 7.0 Administrator's Pocket Consultant (all from Microsoft Press). He also wrote MCSE Core Exams in a Nutshell and Windows Vista: The Definitive Guide for O'Reilly.

Product Details

• Paperback: 800 pages
• Publisher: Microsoft Press (June 22, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0735622175
• ISBN-13: 978-0735622173
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7.5 x 2.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #385,931 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Group Policy Bible, June 19, 2005

By 

Jase T. Wolfe - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Microsoft® Windows® Group Policy Guide (Paperback)

At over 700 pages, everything you want to know about Group Policies (GP) is at your fingertips. Covering every aspect of GPs from concept introduction to advanced troubleshooting on all supported Windows platforms (including Windows Server 2003 SP1), any administrator of any level will walk away from this book with a more clear and advanced understanding of the information than what they started with.

Along with foundational GP concepts, everything you need to know about deployment, client hardening, user and computer management, software deployments, and troubleshooting are here. The information does not stop with just configurations for the Windows platform, but covers the Microsoft Office suite as well. Beyond the in-depth administrative information, complete overviews of add-in security templates, creation of custom GP templates, and GPMC scripting are also well documented. The included CD-ROM has every template and tool discussed in the book, as well as many very useful utilities not directly mentioned but of value.

Don't let the size of the book discourage you. Although large, the topics are well presented, well labeled, and what you're looking for is easily found from the table of contents or the index. What makes this book even more usable is the in-page topic links. In every chapter, ever time a concept is presented where you need to understand the foundation, a "More Info" box is presented telling you where in the book to turn for the underlying principals. That little addition makes this book not just a start to finish text, but an as-needed reference that you will keep readily available.

Any administrator of any level that works in any way with Group Policies should pick this up.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars EVERYTHING you'd ever want to know about group policy, October 25, 2005

By 

Dan Wagner (Fullerton, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Microsoft® Windows® Group Policy Guide (Paperback)

I got this because it was recommended to me. Plus I couldn't live without Stanek's Windows Server 2003 Inside Out and he's a coauthor of this so I was fairly certain it would be worthwhile. Initially, I spent most of my time in the first few chapters as will most admins. The first chapter covers how group policy works with solid depiction of default policy and what it should/shouldn't be used for. The next chapter drills into everything you need to know about GPO creation, linking, delegation, RSoP, and GPMC. Chapter 3 is where I finally learned how GP processing and refresh work from low to high - something even Moskowitz's book doesn't do a good job of detailing. There's also detailed discussion on copy, import, backup, and restore - again something not covered well in Moskowitz's book. Chapter 4 is about deploying Group Policy with design considerations, best practices, and migration details. Chapter 5 is about hardening clients and servers using policy. I would have paid the cover price for these 5 chapters (200+ pages) alone. The rest of the book drills chapter by chapter into nearly every area of policy, policy optimization, policy customization (550+ pages).

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars number one book I now use, October 12, 2006

By 

S. D. Bieber "Skip Bieber" (Wheeling, IL usa) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Microsoft® Windows® Group Policy Guide (Paperback)

After visiting Darren's website and exchanging emails, I bought the book. Sure I've got other GPO books on the shelf (and the table and the floor) but this book as quickly became "THE" number one book I use. Just in the first few days with this book, I was able to resolve 4 of those annoying non-critical items that mean nothing to end-users but annoyed me every time I saw it occur. And in the days after that, I was not only able to get many other backlogged GP items resolved, but even threw in some razzle as well. I especially found their discussion of the GPMC and RSOP modeling very helpful - I've been struggling to master both (and with those other books) and with the short time with the book, I've picked up both quickly. I'm by no means a master on this (yet) but getting there quickly and this book has and will help. Writing style is short, crisp and to the point - the kind I like. The only negative is that my co-workers keep stealing it! :)