Group Policy Central

Microsoft have just released a new Group Policy related hotfix that resolves a memory leak with Group Policy Preferences in Windows Server 2008.

KB2300745 – A memory leak occurs in Svchost.exe when you apply or update Group Policy preference settings in Windows Server 2008

A new post on the Ask the Directory Service Team blog has just announced a new hotfix that addresses an Access Denied issue when using Group Policy Preferences to schedule a task.

KB2447414 – User GPP Scheduled Task item fails to apply and logs event id: 4098 with 0×80070005 "Access is denied."

A new Windows Vista / 2008 Group Policy Preference client side extension hotfix rollup has been released. Below I have listed the details of the hotfix including a complete list of all issues it resolved.

KB977983 – Group Policy preferences client-side extension hotfix rollup for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008

New Issues Resolved

• You cannot create a GPP folder when the target path is a Distributed File System (DFS) path.
• Item-Level Targeting for the security group does not recognize nested groups for computer objects.
• When you configure Item-Level Targeting for GPP to match a registry value, the match fails.
• The GPP data source name (DSN) requires a password if a username is specified in the DSN connection information. After you apply this hotfix rollup, you can use a blank password in the DSN connection information.
• You experience a significant delay when you log on to an Active Directory site that has a read-only domain controller (RODC). This issue occurs when you implement Item-Level Filtering for Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) by using GPP.
• GPP cannot be deployed on a printer when the printer owner is not specified as "System" or "Administrators."
• When you configure Item-Level Targeting for GPP with Terminal Services, Item-Level Targeting fails.
• A memory leak occurs in the GPP client every time that Item-Level Targeting is processed.

Previous KB974266 Issues Resolved

• The Windows Event Log service crashes when the regional options preferences are set to English (United Kingdom).
• If the regional options preference is set to English (United Kingdom) or to anything other than United States, it cannot be applied. The regional options preference setting still shows United States.
  • Note A non-administrator user cannot log on to a domain from a computer that is running Windows Vista SP2, if the user’s locale information is set by using a Group Policy preference and set the regional options preference as English (United Kingdom).
• If you create or update a virtual private network (VPN) connection by using a Group Policy object, the connection does not bind to IP Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) or IP Version 6 (TCP/IPv6).
• A Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) query that is used by item level targeting uses an incorrect base distinguish name.
• Group Policy Service (GPSVC) stops responding during the GPSVC shutdown process if third-party printer drivers are installed by Group Policy Preferences.
• The %GPTPATH% variable is not resolved correctly when Group Policy Preferences are processed.
• Group Policy Preferences stops responding when you try to configure the printer item for printers that use third-party drivers. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

  973772 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/973772/ ) Group Policy Preferences stops responding when you try to configure the printer item for printers that use third-party drivers on a Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008-based computer

Source http://blogs.technet.com/b/askds/

The guys at the Ask the Directory Services Team blog have just published the list of latest Directory Services related hotfixes ( see http://blogs.technet.com/b/askds/archive/2010/10/18/new-directory-services-content-10-10-10-16.aspx ). For your convenience I have put in a direct link and a short description for the two Group Policy related hotfixes.

KB2379592 – "Object reference not set to an instance of an object" error message when you view the GPO backup settings in the Group Policy Management Console.

Description

Resolves an “Object reference not set to an instance of an object.” when you select the “View Settings” of a GPO that has an advanced audit policy setting configured that you have also backed up.

KB970840 – Some settings in Group Policy Preferences for Internet Explorer do not deploy correctly to computers that are running Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista, Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2

Description

Resolves the following IE8 preference settings from not working:

• Check boxes under Accessibility
  • "Reset text size to medium while zooming"
  • "Reset Zoom level to 100% for new windows and tabs"
• Check boxes under Security
  • "Allow active content to run in files"
  • "Allow software to run or install even…"
• Check boxes under International
  • "Send IDN Server Names"
  • "Send UTF -8 URL"
  • "Show information bar for encoded address"

It also resolves a freeze/crash in the Group Policy Object Editor when you are editing an Internet Explorer Group Policy Preferences setting.

Microsoft have now released hotfix (KB980356) to resolve an issues with configuring a scheduled task described as “Incorrect start dates are displayed for the scheduled tasks that are deployed by Group Policy preferences in Windows Server 2008 or in Windows Vista”. This issues results a problem with the schedule task being configured to run on the wrong date (e.g. a day early) due to the way “the Group Policy preferences engine handles the date incorrectly”.

For more information check on the issue and for a link to the download go to KB980356

Source Aug. 27 – Sep. 2 Hot-Fix KB articles Weekly Release – Windows 6/7 – The Hot Blog – Site Home – TechNet Blogs