Group Policies are one of the most important tools built-in to Active Directory, however most organizations are either not using Group Policies at all, or they are not using them as effectively as they could.

In this seminar presented by Active Directory expert, Rand Morimoto, Rand discusses and demonstrates the latest best practices at planning, creating, implementing, and managing Group Policies for everything from process automation, to desktop management, to patch management, to security management in the enterprise. When properly setup and used, tasks that used to take days walking from computer to computer can now be done in minutes from a single Group Policy console. Tasks that used to be emailed to users to perform (ie: launch an install a file, or accept Windows Update changes) can now be created by the IT department and invoked immediately through a policy without individual user intervention.

Rand talks about (and demonstrates):

• What you can do with Group Policies

• How organizations are leveraging the best features of Group Policies

• How desktops and servers are best managed using Group Policies

• Latest tips and tricks using Group Policies and Windows Scripting Host

• How administrative templates can be used to expand on the default Group Policies

• Tips on managing, debugging, and problem solving Group Policies using GPMC and RSoP

Rand also gives a sneak preview of what will be new in Group Policies, roles-based security, and policy-based security management included in Windows Longhorn Server due out later in 2007. The sneak preview is intended to provide attendees a snapshot of the direction of policies and how the implementation of policies today can better support a long term strategy of IT-based security, systems, and information managed policies and practices.

You should download and print the slide deck that will be used throughout this session

Also, for the tools, documents, utilities, and other information covered in the seminar, you can download the following 30mb ZIP file.  As with any utility, tool, or process whitepaper, make sure you TEST what you are going to do in a lab environment before trying it in a production environment. And backup your production environment before implementing anything in production. If in doubt, Convergent Computing provides hands-on training, mentoring, and support for the use of these tools and procedures and can provide assistance on a couple hour, half day, or longer basis as needed.

Video #1 (1-hr 23-mins): Covers What Group Policies are, Role of the User Profile, What You can do with Group Policies, Group Policy Administrative Tools

Video #2 (1-hr 5-mins): Covers Group Policy Processing, Group Policy Planning, Group Policy Settings and Lessons Learned, Scripting Group Policy Objects and WMI Filtering, Troubleshooting Group Policies, Group Policy Best Practices

Convergent Computing is a technology consulting firm headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area that helps organizations plan, implement, and support their networking environments. If your organization can use assistance implementing, supporting, or just getting better use our of your Windows Active Directory, Exchange, SharePoint, or other network or application technologies, please contact our organization for assistance mailto:sales@cco.com