Group Policy: Why aren't more SBSers using Group Policy for stuff?

One thing that I see going way underutilized in the SBS world is group policy.

And no – I’m not counting what’s pre-configured to automagically “just work” in SBS. I’m talking about leveraging group policy to deploy your apps, utils, and other updates –whenever possible.

So the reason that I was reminded of this today, is because I was working with a large customer who needed to deploy a Citrix ICA client to a bunch of systems. I was talking to my SBS admins who were throwing out ideas like… scripting it, RDP/TS into individual systems, etc. And I was just beside myself because, well… Group Policy rocks! Deploying a tool like the ICA client to oh… two hundred systems with almost zero effort is a blast! Besides, why would I want to make this more difficult than it needs to?

So I was thinking… perhaps SBSers are intimidated by Group Policy… could that be? I don’t know... tag that as SBS-intimidation... because if they are, then they need to start hitting the lab more often. In fact… they better have just been too scared or lazy today because dang it, group policy shouldn’t just be overlooked!

Use the tools we have… especially when they're powerful, and free!

Oh, and if you’re on SBS… and you want scope some GPOs, I recommend adding OU’s below what’s pre-configured in SBS. Don’t muck with the SBS OU’s unnecessarily. It’s just not a good idea – especially if you’re not sure what you’re doing!