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Posted in News Other Site Links

Group Policy Search Engine Gets Updated

The Group Policy Search Engine is a great web site that has all the different version of Microsoft Group Policy ADMX files that allows you to easily and quickly search for the policy setting. This site is one I use very frequently especially and is a must have bookmark for any Group Policy Administrator. Well, Stephanus from Microsoft who maintains…

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Posted in TechEd Video

TechEd: (Internet Explorer 11) The Browser You Love To Hate

If you have ever seen Chris Jacksons (a.k.a. App Compat Guy) sessions you will know that he is an amazing speaker with a very distinctive (and geeky) presentation style. So when I had the opportunity to present with him at TechEd New Zealand 2013 I was super excited to be able present some of the great new features in Internet…

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Posted in TechEd Video

TechEd: Windows 8.1, getting better with Group Policy and Work Folders

My TechEd New Zealand session about Group Policy and Work Folders is now available for viewing. This session shos a combination of what is new with Group Policy in Windows 8.1. It also is ha a shorter version of my other work folders sessions I presented at TechEd Australia the week before (see Windows 8.1 Folders Overview – My Corporate…

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Posted in News Tip

Native Boot to Desktop Group Policy Support for Windows 8.1

Microsoft has just released the RTM version for people who have MSDN or TechNet subscriptions of Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2 (see http://blogs.technet.com/b/windowsserver/archive/2013/09/09/attention-technet-and-msdn-subscribers-windows-server-2012-r2-available-for-download-today.aspx). The really great new about this release is that there are a few new Group Policy setting, most notably NATIVE support for IT Administrators to configured boot to desktop. The setting name is called “Go…

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Posted in TechEd

TechEd: Windows 8.1 Folders Overview – My Corporate Data on all my Devices

For those of you that missed my TechEd Australia session or if you were just not lucky enough to make a trip down under to see me speak in person my TechEd Australia 2013 session “Windows 8.1 Folders Overview – My Corporate Data on all my Devices” has now been published on Channel 9. So sit back and take in…

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Posted in Tutorials

Windows 8.1 Group Policy Update Performance Changes

One of the new improvements in Windows 8.1 is called Group Policy Caching (see Group Policy Caching in Windows 8.1) that makes drastic performance improvements when users are operating over high latency network links. However as with everything there is always a catch…. I have discovered in my testing of this new feature that running a GPUPDATE was taking a LOT…

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Posted in Tutorials

How to setup Work Folder using Group Policy

Work Folders is a great new server role feature with Windows Server 2012 R2 that allows your end user to sync their files over multiple device at work and at home. Think of it as SkyDrive hosted on Windows Server in your own server room rather than by a third party. While there are a lot more technically impressive features…

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Posted in News

New Background Drive Mappings in Windows 8.1

As I briefly mention in my previous blog post about Group Policy Caching (https://www.grouppolicy.biz/2013/07/group-policy-caching-in-windows-8-1/) both Group Policy Preferences Drive Mappings and Disk Quotas are no longer processed as a Synchronous policy setting. But what does this exactly mean…. Put simply Drive Mappings (and Disk Quota) policy settings will now apply in the background for the users without them having to…

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