Where can I find that GPO setting?

Is there a policy for that? Would that be a computer based policy or a user based policy? If I can’t set that with a traditional group policy can I do it with a preference? When dealing with Group Policy Objects (GPOs) I find myself asking these types of questions all the time? Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a searchable site of policy settings? Sure you can Google settings and there are great sites such as www.gpanswers.com but I’m talking about a site that allows you to search for group policy settings, identifies where you can set them, explain what they do and most importantly what registry settings they touch.  There is. MSDN publishes a site that does this. Group Policy Search is a fantastic resource when dealing with group policies. When you search for setting the tool will provide you with the following information:

• Policy Name
• Category Path (Where you can find it in the console)
• Supported Platforms (What the minimal operating system level required)
• Registry Key
• Value
• Explanation of what the policy does

If you’re like me and deal regularly with group policy administration you’ll find this tool a huge time saver. And yes it has just been updated for Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012

WMI and the ConfigMgr Client

If you still manage Windows XP machines with ConfigMgr I’m sure that you know that 9 out of 10 client health issues are WMI related. Whether it’s the CCM namespace getting corrupt or the entire WMI repository getting corrupt... Windows XP WMI + ConfigMgr = unstable.
Most of the time you can get away with simply deleting the ccm namespace and then reinstalling the ConfigMgr client to correct the problem. (More on that later) However there are times when the fix requires you to rebuild the entire WMI repository – which should be used as a last resort as there could be other applications on the machine that rely on WMI.
After searching around for WMI resources I came across this post which does a great job of detailing different ways to resolve your WMI issues based on your Operating System version. I've used many of these approaches in order to resolve client health issues but I’ve had the most success with the following command:

• From a command prompt run rundll32 wbemupgrd, RepairWMISetup

If you decide that rebuilding the WMI repository is what you need to do follow these steps for Windows XP:

• Open a command prompt and run the following
• net stop winmgmt
• Browse to %windir%\System32\Wbem
• Rename the Repository folder
• Go back to your command prompt and run the following to rebuild your repository
• net start winmgmt

As mentioned before, If you rebuild your WMI repository you run the risk of breaking other applications on that machine that require WMI. A safer method is to simply delete the CCM namespace and then repair the ConfigMgr client. One tool that I now use almost exclusively is SCCM Client Center. SCCM Client Center allows you to do a variety of things but one of the most handy options are it’s client repair options. After you install Client Center connect to the machine in question, (Top left-hand corner) click on the Agent Action menu (highlighted in the screen shot below) and as you can see there are a bunch of actions that you can kick off to repair the ConfigMgr client. Most of the time selecting Delete root \ccm will resolve your problem.



I find myself using this tool everyday for a variety of reasons.