MDM & GP Tips Blog

Greg from MCPmag almost got it right. So I set him straight about ADM and ADMX files. Check out his correction in MCPmag.com here.

It's only 11 months after RTM, so these files are right on time! :-) Just kidding, I'm sure it was a lot of work. These ADMX files for Office 2007 localize the GP settings into 8 languages, so that's pretty impressive. Just pop 'em in your central store, and get a beer. Don't know what ADMX files are? Then read the last two newsletters. Don't know what a central store is? Then read my free Chapter 5 in the "Book Resources" section here on this site. That's what we do here at GPanswers.com -- giving you the building blocks to get smarter in Group Policy. Since 2003 ! Check out the ADM and ADMX files here (one download.)

I like this idea a lot. It's a book on JUST the WS208 changes. But wait! Here's their cool deal. You can get the eBook today (it's a little rough around the edge) and any other edited eBook versions for free AND they'll also send you the printed book when it's ready. Wow. Check it out. Good job Greg (and Don.. Jones that is.) Click here. PS: Greg calls me a nice name in the book. It's fun.. check it out.

If you've never had a chance to see Mark Minasi speak, you should. He's a great friend of mine, so take it from someone who really knows him: He cares about you learning your stuff. I've just sat through his one day Windows Server 2008 "Upgrade" training. He nails 8 or 9 huge "all purpose" topics, including all the AD changes, TS changes, and IIS changes. Even some light GP changes! More stuff than should humanly be allowed to be learned in a day. A killer overview with 323 slides, which he really did a great job. In short, check out www.Minasi.com for his public and private training classes. Then take one. (But for specialized GP training, well, don't forget who your friends are!)

Administrative Templates (.admx) for Windows Vista

If you want to dump every language under the sun into the Central Store, the GP team released ALL the ADMX files in one big fat download. Pour into your Central Store. Click here.
Here.

Group Policy Management Console Sample Scripts

Vista ships with the GPMC built in. (Though adding Vista + Sp1 when it's released will remove the GPMC... see another blog post for more on that. ) Meanwhile, people have asked me about a billion times -- where are the GPMC scripts that used to be installed with the GPMC? Finally, finally.. they're here.

I get questions all the time like "Why isn't GP working?" Well, that's not often the easiest question to answer because there's a lot of moving parts to GP. With that in mind, Microsoft has some new documentation called the "GP Health Model" / GP Infrastructure. It's really an "Anatomy of GP" so you can say "Doctor, when I move my arm it hurts!" and see that it's really your shoulder and not your arm. Anyway, check out the doc. Very interesting stuff.

AGPM helps you edit and manager GPOs offline before going "live." If you've never seen AGPM in action hear it from The Chief, Kevin Sullivan from Microsoft. Great video with awesome production values Click Here

Want to help out the GP team at Microsoft directly?

The Microsoft Group Policy team would like to hear from you! Please take a few minutes and complete the survey on how you use Group Policy to help Microsoft enhance the manageability Group Policy provides to your organization. The survey can be found here and is completely anonymous. The survey will remain open through Friday, September 28, 2007. Thank you in advance for your time and input!

Right. So, here's the deal. Let's talk about yesterday, today and tomorrow.

Today, the GPMC is part of Vista. That's great. One less thing to load.

But what's also (now) true is that if you install SP1 for Vista (not yet available) the GPMC will be uninstalled. Why?

Because this allows for something that I've personally advocated for. That is, when new goodies are ready to be launched in Group Policy land, let's GET IT OUT THE DOOR. And it used to be this way. The GPMC was a simple download and simple install. When bugs were found in the GPMC, that meant it was a quick fix to jam the fixes in, and re-upload the file for the masses.

But now (today) the GPMC is part of the Longhorn and Vista operating systems. Is this good? Not really, in this one dude's opinion. Because what if some new whiz bang feature is suddenly available? Then you'll have to wait until MAYBE an operating system service pack, or at worst a full operating system revision until it's updated.

But it seems going forward the team has made a decision. That is, the GPMC will "break free" from the operating system. This is good and bad. Good because bug fixes and updates will most certainly happen quicker. It's bad because, dang, the GPMC is so great it just feels like it SHOULD be part of the OS. Also bad because the poor GP team has the wrap up their own changes (called Out of Band) changes, where they could rely on different Microsoft build teams to keep it updated inside the operating system.

So, it's a little more work for the GP team, but in my opinion, a really good change. So, Vista + SP1 = no more GPMC. Until you download it (which will have more features anyway.)

So, are you freaked out? Or are you okay with it?

Send me an email. Would love to hear your opinion. (Note I may not be able to respond to all opinions, though I promise I will read it.) Thanks!

Click here for a link to my email.

Two quick notes:

Note #1:

In my testing of FullArmor/Microsoft's ADM to ADMX migrator tool, I encountered a bunch of issues. Namely, all sorts of ADM files I had hanging around wouldn't properly convert to ADMX. Actually, they WOULD convert, but then in the GPOE editor they would bomb out. So, after I reported these errors to FullArmor/Microsoft, I'm happy to say I got a great response for others in the same boat: "We've been working on a new release of ADMX Migrator and have resolved most of the issues including all of the issues raised by Jeremy. We will be feature complete in the next week and a half and expect to release beginning of October 2007. "

Note #2:

I have a new NetIQ sponsored whitepaper out called "Why GP Matters -- For Servers". Click here for that paper.

Note #3:

GPanswers.com now has a search engine. Check it out on the main page !