Microsofta Windowsa Group Policy Guide

I have found this book to be a great resource as I customize our network/station access. It is well written.

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).

If you're buying a group policy management book, this is the one to buy.. these guys are the real deal when it comes to GP expertise.

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.