One of the great new features of Windows 2008 is the usage of Starter Group Policies. You can make a “template” group policy that can be used for a new Group Policy. Whitin this templates you can make the basic settings for your company, so you can save a lot of time whit configuring the new Group Policy.
You can also download a Starter GPO Package, this are collections of configured Administrative templates (.admx) policy settings that can be used to create a live Group Policy (GPO).
Download the Starter GPO Package here
There are two Starter GPO Packages, one for Windows Vista and one for Windows XP SP2.
– Windows Vista EC Computer
– Windows Vista EC User
– Windows Vista SSLF Computer
– Windows Vista SSLF User
– Windows XP SP2 EC Computer
– Windows XP SP2 EC User
– Windows XP SP2 SSLF Computer
– Windows XP SP2 SSLF User
The starter GPO’s are based on recommended settings for Specialized Security Limited Functionality (SSLF) and Enterprise Client (EC) environments, as documented in the Security Guides for Windows Visa and Windows XP
After installing both packages, you just have to load the .CAB files into the Starter GPOs container from the installed location (default: %Program Files%\Microsoft Group Policy\StarterGPOs) using GPMC.