Group Policies Preferences Client Side Extensions

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I had this in my inbox for quite a while now but finally found the time to share this with you.

Group Policy preferences are made up of more than 20 new Group Policy client-side extensions (CSEs) that expand the range of configurable settings in a Group Policy object (GPO). These new preferences are included in the Group Policy Management Editor window of the Group Policy Management Console (GPMC). The extensions are listed under each new preference item. Examples of the new Group Policy preference extensions include the following:

  • Folder options
  • Mapped drives
  • Printers
  • Scheduled tasks
  • Services
  • Start menu settings

The GP Preferences are great to help you get rid of the huge logon scripts and let you even write registry keys or set default printers and so much more here' a list of the ability GP:

  • Windows settings
    • Applications: Extensible for ISVs to create simple Group Policy preference settings for their applications.
    • Drive Maps: Create, modify, or delete mapped drives, and configure the visibility of all drives.
    • Environment: Create, modify, or delete environment variables.
    • Files: Copy, modify the attributes of, replace, or delete files.
    • Folders: Create, modify, or delete folders.
    • Ini Files: Add, replace, or delete sections or properties in configuration settings (.ini) or setup information (.inf) files.
    • Network Shares: Create, modify, or delete ("un-share") shares.
    • Registry: Copy registry settings and apply them to other computers. Create, replace, or delete registry settings.
    • Shortcuts: Create, modify, or delete shortcuts.
  • Control Panel settings
    • Data Sources: Create, modify, or delete Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) data source names.
    • Devices: Enable or disable hardware devices or classes of devices.
    • Folder Options: Configure folder options; create, modify, or delete Open With associations for file name extensions; create, modify, or delete file name extensions associated with a type of files.
    • Internet Settings: Modify user-configurable Internet settings.
    • Local Users and Groups: Create, modify, or delete local users and groups.
    • Network Options: Create, modify, or delete virtual private networking (VPN) or dial-up networking (DUN) connections.
    • Power Options: Modify power options and create, modify, or delete power schemes.
    • Printers: Create, modify, or delete TCP/IP, shared, and local printer connections.
    • Regional Options: Modify regional options.
    • Scheduled Tasks: Create, modify, or delete scheduled or immediate tasks.
    • Services: Modify services.
    • Start Menu: Modify Start menu options.

An Overview of Group Policy Preferences
https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=103735

Download the GP Preferences Client extensions:

GP Preferences for Windows XP

GP Preferences for Windows XP x64 Edition

GP Preferences for Windows Vista

GP Preferences for Windows Vista x64 Edition

GP Preferences for Windows Server 2003

GP Preferences for Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition

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