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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=227365414-02112006>Hi
All,</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=227365414-02112006>I wrote this article
last evening and I thought I would pass along to the group. Hope those of
you who do system administration might find this helpful. </SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=227365414-02112006>Jim
</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
class=227365414-02112006></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>Windows Vista, the next operating system from Microsoft, is scheduled to be
released next week on November 8th. One of the most important things that
is different with Vista for the System Administrator is how Group Policy works.
</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><A
href="http://www.microsoft.com/technet/technetmag/issues/2006/11/VistaGPO/default.aspx"
target=_blank rel=nofollow _><FONT color=#003399>Recently there was a good
article on Vista's new Group Policy (GP) in Technet Magazine in the
November issue written by Jeremy Moskowitz, MS GP MVP and webmaster of
gpanswers.org</FONT></A>. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>As good as the article is, Jeremy glosses over and misses some key details
of what you need to know to get Vista GPO working on your domain. I had to
do some further research and quite a bit of reading to come across how to go
about doing this. And of course this is my whole reason for writing this article
to share what I have learned. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>First and foremost, Windows Vista now uses policy template files that end
in the extension ADMX instead of ADM. The ADMX file is written in XML,
quite different than that of the text based ADM files. Vista will still read adm
files but it is not optimal to use them. I found an <A
href="http://support.microsoft.com/kb/918239" target=_blank rel=nofollow _><FONT
color=#003399>article 918239 on the Microsoft site</FONT></A> on how to write a
sample ADMX file for Internet Explorer. As you can see it is not for the
faint of heart. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>There are over 800 new policies available for Windows Vista. The caveat is
that Windows Vista Policies can be put on a Windows 2000 or 2003 server, but
MUST be managed from a Windows Vista Machine. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>In order to set up your Windows 2000/2003 Domain controller to manage Vista
Group Policy you must set up a central store. I found the steps to do this
on a <A
href="http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/library/1494d791-72e1-484b-a67a-22f66fbf9d17.mspx"
target=_blank rel=nofollow _><FONT color=#003399>Microsoft page in the TechNet
library. </FONT></A></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#003399></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>Here are the steps from the above Microsoft article to creating a Central
Store on your Domain Controller in order to use the Vista Group Policies. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>The central store has to be created manually once on a domain controller.
This domain controller can be a <STRONG>Windows Server 2000/2003</STRONG>. The
<STRONG>File Replication Service (FRS)</STRONG> will replicate it to the other
domain controllers of this domain. It is recommended, though, to create the
<STRONG>central store</STRONG> on the primary domain controller. </DIV>
<OL>
<LI>
<DIV>First, you have to create the root folder of the central
store:<BR>%systemroot%\sysvol\domain\policies\PolicyDefinitions</DIV>
<LI>
<DIV>Copy all ADMX files (also the .adml folders) from the local store of your
Vista machine to the central store. The local store can be found under
%systemroot%\PolicyDefinitions. </DIV></LI></OL></DIV>
<DIV>Older versions of group policy copied all template files into a new
directory for every policy you created. Using a central store saves bunches of
disk space. The old GPMC created a separate uuid for each policy you created
that could go over 5 meg for each policy. This is what makes using the new Vista
policies beneficial and worth looking at. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=227365414-02112006>In light of the</SPAN> over 800
new policies Microsoft has <SPAN class=227365414-02112006>released </SPAN>a
spreadsheet of the policies as of beta 2 <A
href="http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=7812c9cb-e6ca-4144-98ab-2d78587462c5&DisplayLang=en"
target=_blank rel=nofollow _><FONT color=#003399>available on their website
here.</FONT></A> Microsoft also has created a <A
href="http://download.microsoft.com/download/3/b/a/3ba6d659-6e39-4cd7-b3a2-9c96482f5353/Managing%20Group%20Policy%20ADMX%20Files%20Step%20by%20Step%20Guide.doc"
target=_blank rel=nofollow _><FONT color=#003399>guide for Managing Vista Group
Policy that you can get from this link.</FONT></A> With another <A
href="http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/library/02633470-396c-4e34-971a-0c5b090dc4fd.mspx"
target=_blank rel=nofollow _><FONT color=#003399>version of it in html found
here. </FONT></A></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#003399></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>So as you can see the information on ADMX templates and Vista Group Policy
is already pretty spread out and available... it is just finding it and sorting
it all out that is the problem. The frustration comes when you go to look
for some sort of utility to help you create your own ADMX templates with XML or
edit existing ones. No such utility exists and it is noted in the TechNet
magazine article that Microsoft has no plans of releasing one. There is
the <A
href="http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=72D6AA49-787D-4118-BA5F-4F30FE913628&displaylang=en"
target=_blank rel=nofollow _><FONT color=#003399>XML Notepad 2006</FONT></A>
utility that may be of use but that is not specifically made for editing
policies..only XML files. You still have know what you are doing. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>If anything I hope this article gives you the additional information and
directions of where to go to get the information you need to get you started
using Vista Group Policy. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>@Copyright Jim Kenzig</DIV>
<DIV>Here are Link resources from the Article:</DIV>
<DIV>TechNet Magazine: More Powerful Group Policy In Windows Vista</DIV>
<DIV><A
href="http://www.Microsoft.com/technet/technetmag/issues/2006/11/VistaGPO/default.aspx"
target=_blank rel=nofollow _><FONT
color=#003399>http://www.Microsoft.com/technet/technetmag/issues/2006/11/VistaGPO/default.aspx</FONT></A></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#003399></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>MSKB Ar<SPAN class=227365414-02112006>ti</SPAN>cle 918239: How to write
custom .adm and .admx administrative template files to provide an elevation
policy for protected mode in Internet Explorer 7.0</DIV>
<DIV><A href="http://support.microsoft.com/kb/918239" target=_blank rel=nofollow
_><FONT color=#003399>http://support.microsoft.com/kb/918239</FONT></A></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#003399></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>Editing Domain-Based GPOs Using ADMX Files</DIV>
<DIV><A
href="http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/library/1494d791-72e1-484b-a67a-22f66fbf9d17.mspx"
target=_blank rel=nofollow _><FONT
color=#003399>http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/library/1494d791-72e1-484b-a67a-22f66fbf9d17.mspx</FONT></A></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#003399></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>Group Policy Settings Reference Windows Vista Beta 2</DIV>
<DIV><A
href="http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=7812c9cb-e6ca-4144-98ab-2d78587462c5&DisplayLang=en"
target=_blank rel=nofollow _><FONT
color=#003399>http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=7812c9cb-e6ca-4144-98ab-2d78587462c5&DisplayLang=en</FONT></A></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#003399></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>Managing Group Policy ADMX Files Step by Step Guide</DIV>
<DIV><A
href="http://download.microsoft.com/download/3/b/a/3ba6d659-6e39-4cd7-b3a2-9c96482f5353/Managing%20Group%20Policy%20ADMX%20Files%20Step%20by%20Step%20Guide.doc"
target=_blank rel=nofollow _><FONT
color=#003399>http://download.microsoft.com/download/3/b/a/3ba6d659-6e39-4cd7-b3a2-9c96482f5353/Managing%20Group%20Policy%20ADMX%20Files%20Step%20by%20Step%20Guide.doc</FONT></A></DIV>
<DIV>and</DIV>
<DIV><A
href="http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/library/02633470-396c-4e34-971a-0c5b090dc4fd.mspx"
target=_blank rel=nofollow _><FONT
color=#003399>http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/library/02633470-396c-4e34-971a-0c5b090dc4fd.mspx</FONT></A></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#003399></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>XML NotePad 2006</DIV>
<DIV><A
href="http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=72D6AA49-787D-4118-BA5F-4F30FE913628&displaylang=en"
target=_blank rel=nofollow _><FONT
color=#003399>http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=72D6AA49-787D-4118-BA5F-4F30FE913628&displaylang=en</FONT></A></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV></DIV><!-- Converted from text/rtf format -->
<P align=left><SPAN lang=en-us><FONT face=Arial size=2>Jim Kenzig</FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN lang=en-us><FONT face=Arial size=2>Network Manager</FONT></SPAN>
<BR><FONT size=2><FONT face=Arial><SPAN lang=en-us>Cuyahoga County Public
Library<BR></SPAN>Microsoft MVP - </FONT></FONT><A
href="https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile=23AEC72D-4582-47DE-8516-85D400AD929A"
target=_blank rel=nofollow _><FONT face=Arial color=#003399 size=2>Terminal
Services</FONT></A><BR><A
href="http://www.citrix.com/English/ps2/products/feature.asp?contentID=38494"
target=_blank rel=nofollow _><FONT face=Arial color=#003399 size=2>Citrix
Technology Professional</FONT></A><BR><A
href="http://www.provisionnetworks.com/vips/members.aspx" target=_blank
rel=nofollow _><FONT face=Arial color=#003399 size=2>Provision Networks
VIP</FONT></A><BR><SPAN lang=en-us><FONT face=Arial
size=2>jkenzig@cuyahogalibrary.org</FONT></SPAN><BR><SPAN lang=en-us><FONT
face=Arial size=2>216-749-9389</FONT></SPAN> </P>
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