WHITEPAPERS

(This article was originally written way back in the early 2000s. I’ve finally gotten around to updating it for the modern era 😊) Group Policy leverages a complex and sometimes inconsistent model when it comes to storing the settings that you specify within a Group...

In this whitepaper, SDM Software Founder and CTO Darren Mar-Elia covers the role that Group Policy plays in privileged access management within your environment, and how you can use Group Policy to mitigate how an attacker can move around your environment using...

13-time Microsoft Group Policy MVP & SDM Software founder Darren Mar-Elia, shares highlights on what's new in Group Policy for Windows 10, some best practices for leveraging these new settings, and things you should think about with respect to overall Group Policy...

What is Desired State Configuration? How is it related to Group Policy? This paper is authored to start a conversation to answer these questions. On the surface they may seem simple, but the ability to answer the question thoughtfully takes some knowledge of what this...

This whitepaper provides a high level overview of our experiences and recommendations around modernizing your Group Policy environment, with an eye towards getting the most from your Windows configuration management technologies. The paper describes a step-by-step...

This whitepaper provides an introduction to the features and capabilities found in Group Policy Preferences--an extension to Windows Group Policy that Microsoft incorporated into Windows Vista and newer versions of the OS. GP Preferences extends Group Policy with...

This whitepaper describes how you can automate changes to Group Policy settings using the SDM Software Group Policy Automation Engine (GPAE). GPAE provides a PowerShell interface for managing GPO settings.

Policies & Preferences You've probably heard of registry tattooing as it relates to NT 4 system policy. Tattooing was the effect that you saw whenever you applied a registry policy to a computer or user and then removed that policy file. Even though the policy...