Share via

Group Policy in Windows 7

  • Article

PowerShell! The name alone should get you excited. Wait until you see all the cool stuff you can do with PowerShell in the Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 release of the Group Policy management tools. For those of you who have yet to learn PowerShell, hopefully this will help motivate you. You will be able to…

 

a) Add PowerShell scripts to logon/logoff and startup/shutdown

b) Use cmdlets to do a lot of what you’ve been using the GPMC UI or GPMC Sample Scripts for (creating new GPO’s, linking, making backups…)

 

<drumroll please…>

 

c) Configure GPO registry settings from the PowerShell commandline

 

Holy cow! If you aren’t excited, it’s only because you don’t know what the word cmdlet is yet, but you can find out!

 

Here’s how:

Don Jones is a great writer for people of every level:

               

Here are some of his great reasons to use PowerShell with some cool tricks you can use right away for troubleshooting and management:

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc160873.aspx

Check this out from the article:

 

Top 10 Cmdlets to Start Using Immediately

  • Get-Command retrieves a list of all available cmdlets.
  • Get-Help displays help information about cmdlets and concepts.
  • Get-WMIObject retrieves management information by using WMI.
  • Get-EventLog retrieves Windows event logs.
  • Get-Process retrieves a single or list of active processes.
  • Get-Service retrieves a Windows service.
  • Get-Content reads in text files, treating each line as a child object.
  • Add-Content appends content to a text file.
  • Copy-Item copies files, folders, and other objects.
  • Get-Acl retrieves access control lists (ACLs).

For a complete list of cmdlets that ship with Windows PowerShell, go to windowssdk.msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms714408.aspx. 

 

 

Here, he’s showing you how to build a software inventory tool using WMI cmdlets in a 6 minute video with accompanying article:

https://blogs.technet.com/tnmag/archive/2008/10/21/windows-powershell-building-your-own-software-inventory-tool.aspx

 

 

The Scripting Guys are hilarious and helpful. This is some of the stuff I liked that they wrote:

 

Get-Service; a quick way to get your hands dirty with something you can use right away

https://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/topics/msh/cmdlets/get-service.mspx

 

Format-List; how to make your results useful to you

https://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/topics/msh/cmdlets/format-list.mspx

 

This is their archive of Windows PowerShell Tips:

https://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/resources/pstips/archive.mspx

 

Let me know what resources you like in the comments, I can always learn more. Keep looking to this blog for more details on GP’s new cmdlets…

 

Hope this helps,

Lilia Gutnik

Group Policy, PM

Comments

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    You configured a setting in one GPO and want to know what that setting is across all GPO’s. You want

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Hi ! So far I can see, for GPO, is remains the big problem since ever:There is no way to script local policies! It's just like Stonehenge:I have to take my shoes , walk to another server, configure somethings, continue .... So this remains still the biggest pain in ... For example:I have no access to GPOs and so I must do verything manually .... Thanks for that! Very annoyed. --mabra

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Robert - see recent posts on this topic.

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    hi, is it possible to have the beta of .admx for group policy for windows 7 to test before the  official release? Thanks

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    The news regarding wall to wall PowerShell in Windows 7Windows 2008 R2 is great news. The fact that

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    S&aring; kom nyheden endelig. I Windows 7 / Windows Server 2008 R2 vil der v&aelig;re support for bl

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    ManU - it all depends on the settings you want to apply and whether they are not used in W7 like they were in previous versions. Usually you will find a replacement for these.

  • Anonymous
    May 12, 2009
    Any issues managing Group Policy with my Windows 7 RC workstation in a Windows 2003 domain?

  • Anonymous
    August 17, 2009
    If I wanted Power Shell, I would use UNIX!!  I think Microsoft forgot their flagship product named "Windows" that is based on a GUI...  Remember GUI???  I have more important things to do with my time at work than to learn powershell language to accomplish administrative tasks that used to take seconds in a GUI!!!

  • Anonymous
    September 02, 2009
    Has anyone had any Group Policy issues with Windows 7 workstations in a Windows 2003 domain enviroment???

  • Anonymous
    September 18, 2009
    What are the new GPOs for Windows 7 OS?  Anything specific? Rob

  • Anonymous
    October 15, 2009
    It seems that the GPOs wont work with my win7 in our domain environment (DC on windows server 03 R2).Am i missing anything?