Monday, September 17, 2012

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