Tales from the Community: How do I deploy Windows 7 policy settings
From the Newsgroups:
"Hi!
In order to use all of windows 7 AD Policies you need to be running Windows
Server 2008 R2?Can i get a list of Group Policies that i cannot be leveraging when a
windows 7 client is in a windows 2003 domain?
Pero"
Hey Pero,
Good to hear you’re interested in deploying Win7 and configuring it with Group Policy. You first sentence is more like a statement than a question :-) But I’m afraid (or happy? maybe both!), I need to make a contradicting statement here: of course you DO NOT have to be running Windows Server 2008 R2 for those great Windows 7 policies. At least it doesn’t have to be a Windows Server 2008 R2.
What you need is a management station that is capable of creating Win7/Server 2008R2 Group Policies. Creating that is pretty easy. Do you have a Win7 client? Maybe virtualized? A Windows Server 2008 R2 client? Yeah? Then you’re ready to go! That’s all it takes - no special DC requirements here.
For Win7, there’s a Remote Server Administration Toolkit (RSAT) you can download and install here.
GPMC is one of the features included in this package. Once installed, GPMC from Win7 RSAT is capable of creating all those Windows 7 Group Policies you may want to deploy. It may be a little tricky to get the GPMC enabled after installation, but my fellow-Group Policy MVP Jeremy created a how-to video on installing and enabling it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsYkbLzVsM8
(A good-looking guy, isn’t he!?). If you’re on Windows Server 2008R2, it’s already on board – you just need to enable it. Even then, Jeremy’s video just walks you through.
As for your second question, there are Excel spreadsheets you can look into and filter for your favorite categories. They enlist all ADMX and Security Group Policy settings available. Looking them up and filtering within this spreadsheet is easier, in my opinion, than searching. The latest spreadsheet can be downloaded from this link.
Cheers,
Florian (Group Policy MVP)