Configure Security Auditing by Subcategory Using Group Policy

Mark Berry April 16, 2011

I like to be able to review the Windows Security log to see who has logged on to a computer, among other things. This means that I need to audit Success as well as Failure events. However, with Windows 7 and 2008 R2, my old auditing policies are generating so many events that it takes a huge Security log just to hold one day’s worth of events. I finally dug in to audit subcategories to disable some overly verbose events.

Use Group Policy to Enhance Adobe Security

Mark Berry May 1, 2010

Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat have become two of the biggest security holes on Windows computers. It’s important to keep them patched. There are also a couple of registry changes that can help by disabling JavaScript and disabling the ability to launch external programs. After barely dodging this /Launch attack a few days ago, I decided to use Windows Server 2003 Group Policy to make the registry changes.

Gigabit Switch Spanning Tree Causes Slow Logon

Mark Berry February 8, 2010

I recently installed a Dell PowerConnect 2824 switch, my first foray into managed switches and gigabit networking. I blogged earlier about how to set it up and how to use it for bandwidth monitoring.

The client where I installed the switch reported that an XP workstation (a Dell OptiPlex 755 with a gigabit NIC) was extremely slow to log on immediately after a reboot. Like five minutes or more slow. Once the logon did finally complete, I saw that a logon script had failed to map network drives, although I could map them manually. The issue did not seem to happen on older workstations with 10/100 NICs.

Group Policy in a Mixed Windows XP – Windows 7 Environment

Mark Berry December 29, 2009

I’ve recently added a Windows 7 Enterprise computer to a network that is mostly running Windows XP SP3 with a Windows Server 2003 R2 server.

One of the main challenges is to get Group Policy to work properly in the mixed Windows XP – Windows 7 environment. For now, the goal isn’t to take advantage of all the new Group Policy features–we just want Group Policy to do on Windows 7 what it does on XP.

Deploying Printers With Group Policy in Windows Server 2003 R2

Mark Berry November 27, 2009

I recently added a printer connection to a Windows Server 2003 R2 machine. In the past, this has meant re-training each user on how to connect to a network printer. Surely this connection can be defined centrally for all users and/or computers?

It didn’t take me long to find Mitch Tulloch’s excellent article, Deploying Printers With Group Policy in Windows Server 2003 R2. Everything you need to know is in that article or in his previous article, Managing Printers with Windows Server 2003 R2. I followed his procedure and everything worked like a charm. Thanks Mitch!