What does Group Policy look like?

The bulk of interaction between an administrator and Group Policy will be via a Microsoft Management Console (MMC) called the Group Policy Management Console (GPMC). Chapter 2, Group Policy Management Console (GPMC), is all about this console so we won't discuss it too much here, but the primary things to remember are that the GPMC is the place you will visit to both configure settings and filter where you want them to apply, and that you will be able to launch and tap into this console from many different places within your environment.

Here is a quick screenshot of the GPMC for your viewing pleasure:

Another piece of the Group Policy puzzle that is important to understand is the placement and storage of its data. As mentioned, for the remainder of this book, we will be focusing on Active Directory Group Policy. In this setting, the data for Group Policy settings is stored on your Domain Controller server or servers. Small environments may only have one DC, but any SMB or larger will have multiple servers that are hosting this same role. In some cases, an organization may have hundreds of DCs. When multiple DCs are present, the Group Policy settings and data are replicated among all of them, so the failure of one node does not result in the loss of this data. We will dig deeper into the details on what information is stored, and where, in Chapter 8, Group Policy Maintenance.