Summary

Group Policy, as always, is a fascinating and somewhat scary topic. The changes in Windows Vista, with over 800 new settings, are not unusual in the history of Group Policy. It is a smart administrator that learns as much as she can about Group Policy and how to leverage it to gain better control and less administrative overhead.

It is encouraging to see that so many new security settings made it into Group Policy in Windows Vista. Obviously, much of what is in there will have no impact on security of most environments, but occasionally there is a nugget that truly makes a difference.

You can also leverage Group Policy in other ways. For example, if a vulnerability is made public that affects a particular component, you can probably disable that component temporarily using Group Policy, or you can configure the firewall to block the exploit. The tools are all there. The sky really is the limit in how you make use of them.