Submitted by Darren Mar-Elia - Blog: The GPOGuy Group Policy Blog

SDM Group Policy Refresh Cmdlet is the PowerShell version of my Group Policy remote refresh utility. The PowerShell version has many of its options, but leverages PowerShell to trigger remote Group Policy refreshes on systems on your network. It allows you to send options like /force and /sync and also lets you provide alternate credentials when connecting to the remote system. And because it is based on PowerShell you can easily pass a list of computer names through an import of a CSV file.

GP Refresh PowerShell Cmdlet

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Microsoft published a new guide about the security settings in Windows Server 2008. This Technet article gives an overview and the guide itself can be downloaded here. What makes this guide so useful is not only the 214 page security guide (plus a 76 page appendix about security related Group Policy settings). Most interesting are the Excel files that come with the guide.

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Submitted by Darren Mar-Elia - Blog: The GPOGuy Group Policy Blog

The GPMC PowerShell cmdlets are a set of free cmdlets that wrap the functionality of Microsoft’s Group Policy Management Console (GPMC). The cmdlets provides functionality to PowerShell such as creating and deleting GPOs, linking and unlinking GPOs and modifying GPO permissions, to name just a few.

GPMC PowerShell Cmdlets

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Group Policy and PowerShell are both very powerful tools to automate IT management tasks. Specops Command combines both technologies giving you an even more powerful scripting solution.

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I have been reviewing ADMX Migrator some time ago. This free Microsoft tool isn’t just useful to migrate your ADM files to ADMX templates. In my view, its biggest value is that you can create and edit Group Policy templates with a GUI tool without having to deal with XML. That is you won’t have to see one single angle bracket. There are no revolutionary new features in the version 1.2. But I would recommend getting it anyway since it also fixes some bugs.

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Microsoft offers new Group Policy templates for Vista. You probably know that in Vista the Administrative template files (ADM) were replaced with the XML-based ADMX format. Please, check out this article for more information about ADM and ADMX. I compared the new templates with the ones which come with Vista.

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Microsoft released some new reference guides: Group Policy ADMX Syntax Reference Guide, Windows PowerShell Quick Reference, Windows PowerShell Graphical Help File, VBScript Quick Reference. What I find interesting is that that Microsoft released these guides on the same day. Perhaps, this is just a mere coincidence. But maybe someone at Microsoft wants to remind us that there are quite a few technologies available to automate Windows management.

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Password polices are an essential part of any security strategy. Most users tend to use too weak passwords because they are easier to memorize, thereby, endangering your whole network. In a Windows 2000/2003 domain you can only enforce one password and lockout policy for all users. Windows Server 2008 enables you now to use multiple password policies. In my view, this is a very interesting new feature.

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Fullarmor ADMX Migrator is a free must-have Group Policy tool which allows you to create ADMX templates easily with a graphical user interface (GUI). You can also use it to convert your ADM files into the ADMX format. Under Windows Vista, the XML-based ADMX format replaces the ADM format that you have known from Windows XP/2003. Please, check out my posts about ADMX and ADM for more information.

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The February issue of WindowsITPro has an interesting article about Group Policy annoyances (subscribers only). I think the most common problem is Group Policy settings not taking effect immediately. You change a setting and reboot the machine, but the change doesn’t seem to show immediately.

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