Windows IT Pro is the leading independent community for IT professionals deploying Microsoft Windows server and client applications and technologies.
  
  
  Advanced Search 


June 16, 2003

Access Denied: Backing Up GPOs

RSS
Subscribe to Windows IT Pro | See More Backup and Recovery Articles Here | Reprints | Or get the Monthly Online Pass—only $5.95 a month!

Can you tell me how to back up or at least print the settings in a Group Policy Object (GPO) so that I can rebuild it if someone inadvertently deletes it or it becomes corrupted? A backup function would be nice, but I'd settle for a print option.

Recently, Microsoft released the new Group Policy Management Console (GPMC). GPMC lets you manage all GPOs for an entire forest from one place. The console helps you see how GPOs will be applied and does a much better job of exposing GPO options, such as GPO permissions and status, than the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) Active Directory Users and Computers and Group Policy Editor snap-ins do.

More relevant to your question, though, GPMC includes support for backing up GPOs and for saving them as an HTML report. Figure 2 shows the Settings tab of a GPO, on which you can view all of a GPO's policy settings on one report that you can print or save to an HTML file.

To use GPMC, you need a Windows Server 2003 computer or Windows XP workstation with Service Pack 1 (SP1) and the Windows .NET Framework installed. You can download GPMC and a white paper about the tool at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/gpmc/gpmcintro.mspx.

End of Article



Reader Comments

You must be a registered user or online subscriber to comment on this article. Please log on before posting a comment. Are you a new visitor? Register now




Top Viewed ArticlesView all articles
WinInfo Short Takes: Week of November 23, 2009

An often irreverent look at some of the week's other news, including some post-PDC some soul searching, a Google Chrome OS announcement and a Microsoft response, Windows 7 off to a supposedly strong start, the Jonas Brothers and Xbox 360, and so much more ...

2009 Windows IT Pro Editors' Best and Community Choice Awards

Picking a favorite product from an impressive crowd of competitive offerings is never an easy task, and such was the case with our Editors' Best and Community Choice awards this year. ...

Command Prompt Tricks

One reader shares his tip for setting up the command prompt to reflect a remote path. ...


Related Articles Advanced Group Policy Management Extends Group Policy Management Console

Security Whitepapers Reducing the Costs and Risks of Branch Office Data Protection

Solving Desktop Management Challenges in Healthcare

Solving Desktop Management Challenges in Education

Related Events Backup – The Backbone of Your Business

Disk-to-Disk Grows Up

Effectively Shrinking Your Backup Window – with CA ARCserve Backup Data De-duplication and the Riverbed Steelhead Appliance

Check out our list of Free Email Newsletters!

Security eBooks Spam Fighting and Email Security for the 21st Century

Understanding and Leveraging Code Signing Technologies

A Guide to Windows Certification and Public Keys

Related Security Resources Introducing Left-Brain.com, the online IT bookstore
Looking for books, CDs, toolkits, eBooks? Prime your mind at Left-Brain.com

Discover Windows IT Pro eLearning Series!
Clear & detailed technical information and helpful how-to's, all in our trademark no-nonsense format


Windows IT Pro Home Register FAQ for Windows WinInfo News
Europe Edition About Us Contact Us/Customer Service Media Kit Affiliates / Licensing  
SQL Server Magazine Office & SharePoint Pro DevProConnections IT Job Hound
Left-Brain.com Technology Resource Directory asp.netPRO ITTV Windows SuperSite 
 
 Windows IT Pro is a Division of Penton Media Inc.
 © 2009 Penton Media, Inc. Terms of Use | Privacy Statement