GPO effects on Vista

[Gatt]

Just built a Vista box at school and joined it to the domain, but when I logged on as a test pupil a lot of the GPO settings (set on Windows 2003 SP1) didn't apply - mainly Desktop & Start Menu redirections

 

Looks like GPO will break big time on Vista

[john]

Thats strange, mine sort of worked the other week but I suspect not all the GPOs had applied by that point. But I know there is going to be a load more templates for Vistaery thingy to go into GPOs and they will start to appear no doubt, but don't worry it will be fully lockable by launch on Server 2003.

[Geoff]

Are there any ADM templates hidden away in the vista install (like XP Pro does)?

[Ric_]

I too noticed that some of the folder re-direction and other gubbins didn't work too well on my test box. I haven't looked into it much though.

 

I suspect, the magical way Vista organises things into different categories is having an adverse effect. If this is the case, it will make it rather difficult to roll out Vista.

[GrumbleDook]

Vista does not use ADM templates but ADMX templates.

 

As far as I can see they will only work with longhorn server.

 

More information can be found here.

 

I have asked Microsoft if they can let us have information about integrating Vista into a Server 2003 based environment (and they usually come back fairly quickly).

[Michael]

From reading the above link, it seems more and more Microsoft wants admins to use the GPMC. Vista policies are configurable, but only from a Vista workstation or indeed server. So in theory you could still have a 2000 or 2003 server with Vista clients, but would have to configure all policies from a Vista workstation.

 

A good example of where I have to use this method is controlling XP SP2's firewall settings with a 2000 domain controller. AD on the domain controller doesn't display the firewall options, but they magically appear using GPMC from an XP workstation.

[ChrisH]

You have to copy the relevant files accross to get it to work.

[GrumbleDook]

The best practice that M$ have been advocating for yeasr is that you do not do administration on the server. You do it on a workstation with the correct toolkits

 

Yes, this means using GPMC, and building taskpads relevant to the various jobs that you need to do.

 

The adminstrators' toolkit gives you most things as do the support tools, if you add onto the the scripting stuff (Scriptomatic, etc) you can end up with a very powerful machine ...

 

Of course, this doesn't help you if you are in a classroom and have to do something remotely ... so they also suggest you have remote connections enabled on your workstation so you can remotely connect to it to access all your tools.

 

Erm ... the first time I heard that I thought, ever so politely, bugger that!

 

An option I am looking at for the team at the moment is Virtual Server with an XP installation on it ... accessible only by specific users of course ...

 

I haven't tried a Vista installation on Virtual Server yet ... the 5 hours it took to do an over the top install has made me look at the amount of time I am going to spend trying to do something when it is still waiting to have a number of things finished.

[Michael]

@ChrisH - You don't copy the new adm files across (not manually anyway). By going to GPMC and browsing the domain controller - whether it's 2000/2003/Vista Server, all adm files are time stamped. If the files on the domain controller are older, the newer adm files are automatically copied over and the new policies are then configurable.