Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) in Windows Server 2008



The most functional and useful tool provided to create and manage Active Directory group policies is the Group Policy Management Console (GMPC). The GPMC was introduced after the release of Windows Server 2003; the functionality included with different operating systems produces different options and resulting operations when creating and managing Active Directory group policies.

The GPMC is a Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in and can be added to a custom console. The GPMC snap-in gives the most functionality for administrators who want to manage policies. The GPMC provided with Windows Server 2008 can perform the following Group Policy administrative functions:

1) Create new starter GPOs (Group Policy Objects)

2) Create new domain group policies

3) Create new group policies using starter GPOs as templates

4) Create and configure GPO links to sites, domains, and organizational units

5) View and manage GPOs in domains in the local and trusted Active Directory forests

6) Back up and restore a single or all GPOs in a domain

7) Back up and restore a single or all starter GPOs in a domain

8) Import group policies from external domains and migrate security settings using migration tables to ensure proper import functionality

9) Manage GPO link enforcement, enable links, and disable links

10) Configure the block inheritance settings for sites, domains, and organizational units

11) Manage GPO status to control which nodes in a GPO are enabled or disabled

12) Create and link WMI filters for GPOs

13) Manage GPO security filtering

14) Manage GPO delegation and administrative security

15) Manage the GPO order of processing on containers with multiple GPO links

16) View all configured settings of existing group policies and any additional information, such as the revision number, filtering, delegation, and create exported reports of the configuration

17) Run the GPMC Resultant Set of Policy tool for planning operations

18) Run the GPMC Resultant Set of Policy tool for GPO models to investigate how policies have been applied to specific computer and/or user objects.