GPO - Group Policy Objects Web Sites GpoTool Examples - This site analyzes the output of the Group Policy Verification Tool run with the /verbose switch. Very useful if you're troubleshooting GPO health in your Active Directory setup. Group Policy History Stored in Registry - As Group Policy Objects (GPOs) are read and applied when the computer starts or when a user logs on, information about each of the GPOs applied is written to the registry. This information includes which Group Policy Extensions applied policy, the order in which the GPOs were applied, version data, and options defined for each GPO. This data is also used to determine changes that have been made to the GPO since the last time policy was applied. This article describes each of the registry values that may be found in the stored data for each of the applied GPOs. Group Policy Registry Table - The table on this site displays the Group Policy settings in the Administrative Templates folder and the registry entries that they change. The policies are listed in alphabetical order and are a great reference for understanding Group Policy appliance and searching for specific settings. How to Add Custom Registry Settings to Security Configuration Editor - In this guide you find a description of how to expand the functionality in your security templates to make them contain any settings for anything writeable to the registry. Very useful if you have custom applications or other needs for security on your network. How To Install and Use RSoP in Windows Server 2003 (KB323276) - This article describes how to install the Resultant Set of Policy (RSoP) snap-in and how to use the RSoP tool. RSoP is an addition to Group Policy that makes policy implementation and troubleshooting easier. HOW TO: Add a Windows 2000 ADM Template to a Group Policy Snap-In in Office XP (Q307732) - On this site you find a description of extending the Group Policy Snap-In to suit the needs of Office XP. The procedures can be applied to all sorts of GPO extension. HOW TO: Create Custom Administrative Templates in Windows 2000 (Q323639) - On this site you find a step-by-step guide to extending the functionality of GPO's on Windows 2000. It gives a nice example and also elaborates on the subject of avoiding "tatooing" of registry changes. Identifying Group Policy Client-Side Extensions (Q216357) - Group Policies are a mix of server-side and client-side extensions. The server-side extensions include the components used for configuring the policies. Client-side extensions are the components that interprets and executes the applied Group Policies. These components include Folder Redirection, Disk Quota, etc, and are represented by unique GUIDs. These you find on this page. Installing Applications Using Veritas WinINSTALL LE - The IT and Computing Service department of University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK has a lot of information on working with WinINSTALL LE. See instructions for creating msi files, tweaking the resulting nai and reg files, and examples of editing the final msi package. Also nice hints regarding the testing of your packages. Troubleshooting Group Policy Application Problems - In this article you find a nice description of troubleshooting the appliance of GPO's. The article has lots of references to other Q articles showing how to enable verbose logging, Window Installer logging, etc. Windows 2000 Resource Kit: Group Policy Reference - The Group Policy Reference provides detailed descriptions of the Group Policies in Windows 2000. These descriptions describe the effect of enabling, disabling, and not configuring each policy, as well as explanations of how related policies interact. White Papers Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Security Hardening Guide - This guide is designed to provide you with essential information about how to harden your Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 environment. In addition to practical, hands-on configuration recommendations, this guide includes strategies for combating spam, viruses, and other external threats to your Exchange Server 2003 messaging system. Troubleshooting Group Policy in Windows 2000 - A good place to start if you are troubleshooting GPO appliance. Describes the most important tools, how to enable verbose logging, etc. 34 pages. Windows 2000 Group Policy - One of the most important white papers dealing with the GPO technology on Windows 2000. Very comprehensive. 130 pages. Windows Server 2003 Security Guide - The Windows Server 2003 Security Guide focuses on providing a set of easy to understand guidance, tools, and templates to help secure Windows Server 2003 in many environments. Programs Gpotool.exe: Group Policy Verification Tool - This command-line tool allows you to check the health of the Group Policy objects on domain controllers. GpoTool can check Group Policy object consistency, check Group Policy object replication and display information about a particular Group Policy object. Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) - The Microsoft Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) provides a single solution for managing all Group Policy–related tasks. GPMC lets administrators manage Group Policy for multiple domains and sites within a given forest, all in a simplified user interface with drag-and-drop support. Highlights include new functionality such as backup, restore, import, copy, and reporting of Group Policy objects (GPOs). These operations are fully scriptable, which lets administrators customize and automate management. GPMC will run on Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP SP1 against any Windows 2000 or Windows Server 2003 based Active Directory.