05: PolicyPak Cloud: Deploy Group Policy Admin template settings over the internet

Want to perform real Group Policy settings over the Internet? Check out PolicyPak cloud (and watch this video.)

PolicyPak Cloud: Deploy Group Policy Admin template settings over the internet

Hi. This is Jeremy Moskowitz, former Group Policy MVP and Founder of PolicyPak Software. In previous videos, we learned how to use the “PolicyPak Administrative Templates Manager” to create either a “New Policy” or a “New Collection” to use all the great Group Policy admin template settings and do some extra magic with them.

The one thing we didn’t cover is how to get that stuff deployed through the Internet even to our non-domain joined machines. Well, it couldn’t be easier using PolicyPak Cloud. Simply take your directives, right click and “Export Collections as XML.” I’ll go ahead and save it to my “Desktop” here under “PP ATM Directives,” and I’ll call this “PPATM-EXPORT1.” Now that, the file is in here, I’m going to go to PolicyPak Cloud

Once you’re logged on to the PolicyPak Cloud service, you’ll simply go to “XML Data Files.” We have some example files here for you, but we’re just going to “Upload XML Data File.” I’ll “Browse” for that folder, and here is that file: “PPATM-EXPORT1.” We’ll go ahead and call this “Important Policy Settings.” I think one of them controls mouse pointers and another one controls the shut down tracker.

Once that is installed, if we go to “Computer Groups,” we can click on “Built-in Groups” “All” and this will hit every computer. Or we can use our own groups that we can create ourselves for either branch offices or for each customer that you have. Once you have that directive, you can “Link XML Data files to Computer Group.” I’m going to link it to this “All” group. Here it is, the “Important Policy Settings.” We’ll click “Add” here.

Now let’s jump over to our target machine. That’s over here, right here. The first thing you’ll notice is that this computer is not even domain joined, so we’re about to do Group Policy superpowers through the Internet even to non-domain joined computers.

To prove I’m not pulling a fast one on you here, if I go to “Personalize” and I look here, you’ll see that I have the “Change mouse pointers” available to me. Through the Internet, we’re about to deploy a setting that changes that. I know it’s not a very exciting setting. I’m trying to show you the power of the deployment, not the actual setting.

With that in mind, I’ll just click on the “PolicyPak Cloud Client.” This will have your computers join your instance of PolicyPak Cloud. Once they join PolicyPak Cloud, they’re going to download the directives that are linked to the “All” computer folder. I’ll close that out. As soon as it’s done downloading, that’s all there is to it. You can see the computer is now part of the “All” group.

If we take a look and see if our directives were adhered to, if we right click and go to “Personalize” now, we can see that the change mouse pointer option is gone. Also, if we try to run the “Shut down” tracker or try to “Restart,” we are prompted to do that, which would not normally happen.

To recap, we have Group Policy admin template items that are rounded up using the “PolicyPak Administrative Templates Manager.” We export them and upload them to PolicyPak Cloud. After the computer is joined, it will download those directives and keep them enforced on all the computers you want.

I hope that gets you excited because doing Group Policy through the Internet is a major big deal, and only PolicyPak is able to bring that to you.

Thanks so much for watching. If you want to get started, get in touch and we’ll get you the bits and you can try it on real soon.

Thanks.