Group Policy set up for dummies

[scott46]

I volunteer at a literacy center here in Salem, Oregon. I'm their "IT" guy because no one else wants to do it. I've had a computer since the Radio Shack TRS80. I have W7 at home but have never used the Group Policy process. I set up 23 computers at the center using XP and SteadyState.

Now we are converting to W7 on SSD's and I need to protect them as much as possible. We have a few licenses for Horizon Data Systems "Drive Vaccine" but I wonder if I could use GPO's to better protect the computers from the students.

Can you suggest some reading to help me do this? I tried to look at the MS "Group Policy Settings Reference" Excel download but that just confused me more.

Thanks in advance.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi and welcome to SevenForums,
Sorry for the delayed response group policy is a monster to get used to
It's kind of a learn as you go unless you've ever used it ?

Family safety seems more straight forward :/
I'll ask for assistance for you,
Cheers.
Windows Admin: Using Group Policy Editor to Tweak Your PC

 

[Anak]

Hi scott46, welcome to 7F!

Check out the first five picks here: Content Search - For Dummies

For more on re-introducing your skull-pain:

http://www.thewindowsclub.com/group-policy-for-beginners-guide-from-microsoft

Tutorials | Group Policy Central

Group Policies - Beginners' guide

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh147307%28v=ws.10%29.aspx

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb742376.aspx


There are videos also, click on the youtube icon in the lower right area of the setting/timer bar to get to the youtube page:

 

[Kari]

In my opinion you should stay in SteadyState. It is so incredibly simple and easy to set up public computers in a safe way with it.

Check the complete walkthrough at MS TechNet: Windows 7 SteadyState solution simplified! - Infrastructure Architecture Blog by Panos Macheras - Site Home - TechNet Blogs

Kari

 

[Anak]

Okay Scott!

Looks like you have some good links there, I wish Kari's was in an Epub or some kind of medium, (there may be, I didn't look yet.) It'd be nice to have something in the hands to digest.

In a way I posted that "Dummies" link to match your thread title, hope you don't mind.......

There's also Similar Threads for: Group Policy set up for dummies located at the bottom of your thread.



Here's the link to a question I wanted to ask Kari: Group Policy for Windows 7 Home Premium | http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion

 

[Kari]

Scott, my apologies, I have just now found out something I did not know when posting my previous post.

The step-by-step SteadyState guide I linked to has been edited since I read it last time. I wanted to be sure my suggestion is valid and read it through now and found this edit which was not included in my personal notes:

IMPORTANT NOTE (updated!): ONLY use Windows 7 Enterprise or Windows 7 Ultimate edition media. Other editions or multi-edition DVDs (which include all editions) will not work!

It looks that my suggestion is only valid if you will get the Ultimate editions. If not, then I apologize for the useless suggestion.

Kari

 

[thomnet]

SOLUTION FOUND!

Scott, my apologies, I have just now found out something I did not know when posting my previous post.

The step-by-step SteadyState guide I linked to has been edited since I read it last time. I wanted to be sure my suggestion is valid and read it through now and found this edit which was not included in my personal notes:

IMPORTANT NOTE (updated!): ONLY use Windows 7 Enterprise or Windows 7 Ultimate edition media. Other editions or multi-edition DVDs (which include all editions) will not work!

It looks that my suggestion is only valid if you will get the Ultimate editions. If not, then I apologize for the useless suggestion.

Kari

I've been looking for a free solution to this problem for a couple of years now off & on for the public library systems I admin. This time I found the Panos Macheras technet blog you posted above as well as wioski, both vhd boot solutions.

I tried to use the X17-24395 Ultimate 64 bit ISO I downloaded from Microsoft, but apparently it is a multi-edition ISO which doesn't work with either of these steady state tools. Where can I download an Ultimate 64 bit ISO with SP1 or how can I remove the "alternate" OSs so only 1 OS is seen by these tools?

I found this post: Remove editions of Windows 7 Iso - Super User which is exactly what I need, however the WAIK version of DISM apparently doesn't include the /export-image option. It really sucks if I have to wait for a download of the Windows 8 / 10 version of AIK just to get this updated cmd line tool to get this done.

I found a solution which worked great for me: Wimlib: ImageX / DISM Alternative To Manipulate WIM Files In Linux [Ubuntu PPA] ~ Web Upd8: Ubuntu / Linux blog If you have the linux skills this is a viable option. I installed it under linux Mint 17.2 in a virtualbox VM and the extraction using wimexport was very quick.