Installing Group Policy Management

Group Policy Management
0:15 – Group Policy Management allows the administrator to configure Group Policy. The process of adding it as a feature that will vary between different operating systems. Operating systems such as Windows Vista and Server 2008 and above comes with Group Policy Management already installed as a feature. When it comes to server operating systems, it should be installed automatically with the operating system, however, in the client operating system the tool Remote Server Administration Tools or RSAT must be installed. For client operating system where it is not available, when RSAT is installed the feature will become available to be installed via the Control Panel. In the newer versions of Windows, installing RSAT enables Group Policy Management availability automatically; in the older operating systems, it requires a manual addition using the Control Panel interface.

 

In the case of a Domain Controller, the Group Policy Management tool is installed upon promotion of the server to a Domain Controller. If it is a Member Server, however, it will need to be manually installed through the Programs and Features install wizard. If you are running Windows XP, unfortunately RSAT is not available. For windows XP, Group Policy Management is available as a standalone add-on. All links for downloading RSAT for each operating system are available in the reference section of this video.

Demonstration
1:32 – In Windows 8.1, RSAT – which contains Group Policy Management – requires an additional installation which can be downloaded and installed. To download this, I will open Internet Explorer and search Google for ‘RSAT Windows 8.1’. It will be the first link. Here are the links if you are unable to find RSAT for your version of Windows:

Windows 8.1 http://www.microsoft.com/en-au/download/details.aspx?id=39296

Windows 8 http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=28972

Windows 7 http://www.microsoft.com/en-au/download/details.aspx?id=7887

Windows Vista http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=21090

Windows Vista x64 http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=18787

Windows XP http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=16770

Group

2:00 – When the page opens, select the available download button then the option for 64 Bit.

2:08 – Save the download to the desktop and once complete, close Internet Explorer.

2:17 – Next, we run the RSAT installer which is located on the desktop. The installation is a rather simple one, and we will accept all the defaults.

2:27 – With the default options selected, the installation will start and should take a few minutes to complete.

2:38 – Once the installation has been completed, we’ll open up the Charms menu and search for ‘Server Manager’.

2:45 – Once located, we’ll select and open up Server Manager.

2:49 – To access Group Policy Management, I will open the Tools menu and scroll down to select Group Policy Management.

2:58 – With the tool open, we’ll expand down to the ITFreeTraining domain. From here, we’re able to see and access any Group Policy in the domain.

3:07 – For example, I can select the “Default Domain Policy” (which is created when the domain is created), right click it and then select Edit.

3:16 – Later in the course we will go into more detail on how to edit Group Policy, but you can see how easy it is to open an existing Group Policy and start editing it.

3:25 – With Windows 8.1, when RSAT is installed, Group Policy Management is installed automatically. 3:31 – However, in some operating systems, this will not be the case. For example, earlier client systems such as Windows Vista and Member Servers.

3:40 – If this is the case, you will need to add a feature to the operating system to enable Group Policy Management which is not difficult.

3:47 – To demonstrate this, I will close Group Policy Management and Server Manager.

3:52 – Right click on the Start Menu

3:54 – Select Control Panel.

3:57 – With the Control Panel open, I will select “Programs”.

4:02 – Next I will select the option “Turn Windows features on or off”.

4:06 – This will show the list of Features that are on the system. If Group Policy Management is not available on your system, you may need to enable this option to obtain access to it.

 

When you make a server a Domain Controller, this is done automatically during the promotion and the Group Policy Management tool is installed; however, it will not install automatically when the server is simply joined to the domain.

 

This concludes how to install Group Policy Management on your computer. This will assist when you are watching later videos on Group Policy. Until then, thanks for watching and we hope to see you again.

 

References
“Installing and Configuring Windows Server 2012 R2 Exam Ref 70-410” pages 319 – 320
“Windows 8.1” http://www.microsoft.com/en-au/download/details.aspx?id=39296
“Windows 8” http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=28972
“Windows 7” http://www.microsoft.com/en-au/download/details.aspx?id=7887
“Windows Vista” http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=21090
“Windows Vista x64” http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=18787
“Windows XP” http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=16770
 

Credits
Trainer: Austin Mason http://ITFreeTraining.com
Voice Talent: HP Lewis http://hplewis.com
Companion Document: Phillip Guld https://philguld.com
Video Production: Kevin Luttman http://www.KevinLuttman.com
Quality Assurance: Brett Batson http://www.pbb-proofreading.uk