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Group Policy Diagnostics Best Practice Analyzer
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Ran the GPDBPA last night in my test env and it looks a useful tool even though I think you might have to be a GPO guru to get the best out of it today.
Some of errors raised leave you wondering what to do next whilst others refer to KB articles.
Text from the online help:
The Microsoft Group Policy Diagnostic Best Practice Analyzer (GPDBPA) is designed to help you identify Group Policy configuration errors that may prevent policy settings from being applied as expected or may prevent features from functioning as expected.
The GPDBPA can provide information to help you respond to situations such as:
1. Policy settings are not being applied as expected.
2. A feature is not functioning as expected. (For example, a mapped drive is not visible on client computers.)
3. A computer has:
- Stopped responding during logon or startup.
- Restarted during logon or startup.
- Experienced delays during logon or startup.
- You need to determine whether:
- Policy settings are configured in a way that poses a security risk.
- Necessary services are running.
- You are connecting over a slow link.
- Loopback mode is in effect.
Using the GPDBPA, you can scan the Group Policy configuration on either a client computer (managed node) or domain controller, and view a report of potential issues. Additionally, you can schedule a scan to run at a future time, or schedule scans to run on a recurring basis.
Applicable versions can be downloaded from:
Group Policy Diagnostic Best Practice Analyzer for Windows Server 2003 (KB940122)
Group Policy Diagnostic Best Practice Analyzer for Windows XP x64 Edition (KB940122)
Group Policy Diagnostic Best Practice Analyzer for Windows XP (KB940122)
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Windows System State Analyzer Tool
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A real cool tool I stumbled on this holiday weekend is the Windows System State Analyzer tool used to validate system configurations and verify server application/driver compliance for the Windows Server 2008 logo and certification program.
The tool takes a snapshot of a system which includes fixed drives, services, drivers and the registry. Users can create two snapshots at different points in time and compare them to view differences.
The tool requires version 2 of the .Net Framework and Windows Installer 3.0
I used it to Identify how an application modified a Windows 2000 Terminal Server and the files and services added. The detailed difference report is generated and exported as a HTML file:
This tool can also be used to determine the variance of Servers from a known baseline where it is necessary to ensure they are all identical and it will show where the deltas are.
Neat!!
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Vista Compatibility and reliability Updates
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For those running Vista, Microsoft has released some performance related updates which might fix some startup and hibernation issues you might be experiencing:
An update is available that improves the compatibility and reliability of Windows Vista
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938194
An update is available that improves the performance and reliability of Windows Vista
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938979