Quest® Group Policy Extensions
Version 3.1
Release Notes
April 14, 2008
Welcome to Group Policy Extensions
Quest Group Policy Extensions enables you to centrally set up and maintain the desired user environment throughout your Active Directory without visiting each computer or implementing error-prone logon scripts. It provides a comprehensive set of policies that automate common desktop configuration tasks.
The following is a list of issues known to exist at the time of the Group Policy Extensions release.
|
Feature |
Known Issue |
Change Request |
|---|---|---|
| General | Exercise caution when you use device restrictions on system devices. Disabling certain devices may result in the operating system becoming unbootable. Always test your settings on test computers before using them in a production environment. | CR0177088, CR0177945 |
| If Terminal Services are running on a computer, the Enable offline folder and Offline folder name settings in a policy template are not applied to that computer. For more information, see the following Microsoft Knowledge Base articles: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q277780/, http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=242195 and http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;246052. | CR0159269 | |
| Antivirus programs may interfere with Group Policy Extensions operation. It is recommended that you exclude the Group Policy Extensions installation folder and nested folders from antivirus protection. Otherwise, policy updates may make Group Policy Extensions slower and less stable. | CR0198310 | |
| Client-side extensions | Dialing rules settings from the Network Connections category are applied successfully only if both the user and computer settings are enabled in the policy and applied both to the user and the computer account. | CR0166634, CR0169279 |
| For dialup connections, file and printer sharing settings are not applied. | CR0166866 | |
| On Windows 2000, the user name and password settings from the Network Connections category are not applied. | CR0177571 | |
| Locking Microsoft Office settings is not supported for Microsoft Office 97. | CR0134658 | |
| Microsoft Word-related default printer tray settings are not processed in the templates, because these settings are printer-specific. | CR0166849 | |
| Some Outlook-related offline folder settings are not processed on computers running Outlook 2000. On computers with Outlook XP and 2003, none of these options are processed. | CR0177275 | |
| Settings related to IP printer pooling are not processed. | CR0180602 | |
| If you capture Outlook-related settings from a computer where Outlook is not installed (for example, by capturing all available settings) and then apply the template to a computer running Outlook 2000, this may result in failure of GPE's MAPISERV component. When Group Policy application produces this error, a corresponding message is displayed to the user. | CR0181275 | |
| When you collect Network Connections settings, information about broadband connections (such as DSL) is not gathered. | CR38551 | |
| In version 3.0, if the registry did not contain the value of the Enable Browser Extensions option (by default, it does not), then the No value was collected, though in fact absence of the setting from the registry meant Yes. If any version 3.0 templates were converted to new ones during upgrade, and this option is set to No in those templates, then ActiveX control support will not work. ActiveX control support requires that this option be enabled. If the state of the option was gathered incorrectly, you need to manually set this option to Yes or apply a template where it is set to Yes. To change this option manually, open the Internet Options dialog box, and use the Advanced tab. It can also be changed through Group Policy. |
CR50536 |
This version can directly upgrade versions 3.0 and 2.5. You can perform the upgrade in one of the following ways: without a transition period (upgrade all Group Policy Extensions servers and clients at once, and resume product operation only after the upgrade) or with a transition period (gradually upgrade Group Policy Extensions servers and clients, while letting the pre-3.1 and 3.1 coexist and work together).
To upgrade the administrative tools and the Template Capture Wizard, install version 3.1 of these components over your existing version 2.5 or 3.0 instances.
After the installation, run the updated Group Policy Object Editor snap-in, and re-open each GPO that uses Group Policy Extensions templates. This updates the license and creates independent copies of the templates for use with version 3.1.
If you decide to have version pre-3.1 and 3.1 Group Policy Extensions servers temporarily work together in the same environment, note that each version uses its own Group Policy templates.
You can upgrade client extensions manually using the installation program, or using native Group Policy. To upgrade client-side extensions using Group Policy, configure the Software Installation policy as follows:
The policy will update the client-side extension on computers that are subject to the GPO where the policy was created. The client-side extension setup will run the next time the client starts up.
After you have upgraded all instances of administrative components and client-side extensions, you can remove the old templates from Group Policy Extensions servers. For that, open a GPO that has legacy templates in Group Policy Object Editor, right-click the Computer Settings or User Settings node, and click Cleanup Legacy Templates. Do it for each GPO with obsolete templates.
The dictionaries used by the Environment Variables, Registry Entries, Local Groups, and Local Users categories have been renamed since version 2.5:
When you upgrade version 2.5, the old dictionary template files are deleted from the <installation_folder>\Dictionaries folder and replaced with the new files. Any group policies that used the old dictionaries before the upgrade will continue using them. If you attach dictionaries to group policies after the upgrade, the new files are used.
Before installing Group Policy Extensions, ensure your system meets the following minimum hardware and software requirements:
| Platform | x86, x64* |
| Memory |
|
| Hard Disk Space |
|
| Operating System | Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 with all the latest updates, -OR- Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2, -OR- Microsoft Windows Server 2003, -OR- Microsoft Windows Vista |
| Additional Software | The following software is required only on the computer with the administrative components:
|
* Only client-side extensions support Windows 64-bit Edition.
This section contains information about installing and operating this product in non-English configurations, such as those needed by customers outside of North America. This section does not replace the materials about supported platforms and configurations found elsewhere in the product documentation.
This release is Unicode-enabled and supports any character set. In this release, all product components should be configured to use the same or compatible character encodings and should be installed to use the same locale and regional options. This release is targeted to support operations in the following regions: North America, Western Europe and Latin America, Japan.
This release has the following known capabilities or limitations: A template cannot be captured on one locale(ex-French) and being applied on another(ex-Japan).
The Group Policy Extensions CD contains the following:
The Group Policy Extensions Web package contains the following:
For installation instructions, refer to the Group Policy Extensions Evaluator Guide.
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