Windows® Group Policy Resource Kit: Windows Server® 2008 and Windows Vista®

List Price: $49.99 Discount Price: $25.84

Customer Reviews:

Great Resource for the latest in Group Policy [Posted on 2008-06-02]
If you're looking for a comprehensive resource on the latest improvements and capabilities within Group Policy, this is the book to get and Derek is the author to write it. Derek has intimate inside knowledge of features such as Advanced Group Policy Management (AGPM) and the new and powerful Group Policy Preferences and shares that knowledge within this book. He also provides a great reference on topics such as ADM & ADMX, automating Group Policy management through scripting, delegation and everyday use of the GPMC. This is a excellent reference to have by your desk!

Very factual read, but I feel not so resourceful... [Posted on 2008-06-16]
This book is a great addition to your collection of Microsoft Publications, when it comes to understanding the new technology. Unfortunately, that is not really the point of a resource kit. I can log onto Microsoft's Technet and gather all of the same information that this volume has to offer. In my opinion, the resource kits are suppose to be there for the common administrator, providing him with tools to help in his administration. This is where the book falls short.

The author spends a lot of time explaining how group policy is applied, what built-in tools you use to modify the settings, where the technology originated from, and how it came to be in Microsoft's Server 2008. He never gets into the specific settings, or establishes a best practice, or gives tips to make your life as an administrator easier. I felt very disappointed to learn that he just blew by the environmental portion of Group Policy preferences. I would've really loved to learn more on that.

There are a few points in the book that provide a step by step for enrolling different features, which is helpful. The troubleshooting section at the end might prove useful in a break-fix situation.

Another review mentions scripting in the book. The scripts review how to create, delete and import GPO's. I don't find any value in that, as most administration is done in the GPMC. This is due to the fact that it would take longer to write a script to create a GPO, than it would to just create one. The only benefit I could see with this, is if someone were to deploy several forests at the same time, which is highly unlikely.

Overall, I would only recommend this book to new administrators, to give an understanding of group policy, and to stimulate creative thought on the different features offered out there by this massively updated technology. Otherwise, please, consider other avenues. Your time would be better spent just using the Group Policy Management Console, and deploying policies in a test environment, than reading this book.

My new Best GPO Reference! [Posted on 2008-07-16]
Well I was referred to this book and I am glad that I was. There are a TON of new features to the GPO's in W2K8 and Vista and this book goes over them. It's written in a way that explains the new features and then expands into them, very good index and a format that is easy to find what your looking for as it's laid out like the GPO's are. For instance, if your looking for Group Policy Preferences, and you open the book you can easily turn to the section headers and find it, or turn to the Table of contents, or turn to the index. But for me, I tend to be a flipper, I look at the page headers and flip till I get close. Additionally the book is written in the style where the author talks to you, person to person style, for instance, 'You can control the settings as if you were controlling the computer itself' Page 319, Group Policy Preferences. I have had the book for 3 days now and I have it booked marked with several yellow stickies and many page references memorized. Lastly I'd say this book is a much needed companion to the Windows Server 2008 Administrator Companion or the Configuring Windows Server 2008 Book. Best $$ I have spent on a Book this year.

Michael Nixon
Technology Support Consultant III

Not really for administrators [Posted on 2008-08-03]
This book is on Server 2008 and Vista Group Policy and is organized in 15 chapters. This is more of a book for architects and IT managers than administrators.

The table of contents

1. Why Group Policy?
2. What's New
3. Group Policy Basics
4. Architecture of Group Policy
5. Group Policy Processing
6. Using the GPMC (useful for admins)
7. Advanced GPMC Management (useful for admins)
8. Controlling GPOs with Scripts and Automation
9. Security Delegation for Administrations of GPOs
10. ADM Templates, ADMX Files and the ADMX Store
11. Customizing ADM Templates and ADMX Files
12. Group Policy Preferences
13. Settings Breakdown
14. Advanced Group Policy Management
15. Troubleshooting GPOs (useful for admins)

If you're an administrator, you'll find about 1/3 of the book is useful, the rest less useful. Some of the best parts of the book are Chapters 3, 6, 7 and 15 but these are very much a repeat of Windows Group Policy Guide.

Well Done [Posted on 2008-08-12]
I just got this book to help clean up my Group Policy environment, which is still Windows Server 2003. The book helped with all aspects of what I needed to do, which is optimize GPOs, settings, and now I have faster logons. I plan on moving to Windows Server 2008 and Vista , so I started to implement Group Policy Preferences to eliminate my logon scripts. I was able to do that for all of my existing clients too, which are all Windows XP! After using the book to clean up what I had and implement new technology, I would suggest this book to everyone, from novice to advanced GP guru.

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