In the ever-evolving landscape of cybersecurity, staying ahead of threats means regularly updating security intelligence. For Windows environments, this is particularly true for Windows Defender, Microsoft’s integrated antivirus and anti-malware solution. As a system administrator, one of your key responsibilities is ensuring that these updates occur frequently and consistently across all…
How to configure the scheduled scan in Windows Defender via GPO
November 15, 2023
In the dynamic landscape of cybersecurity, ensuring regular system scans for threats is crucial. For system administrators managing a network of Windows devices, configuring scheduled scans in Windows Defender through Group Policy is a key task. This article provides a comprehensive guide on how to configure scheduled scans in Windows Defender using Group Policy, aimed at enhancing network…
Desktop shortcuts using AD Group Policy: The complete guide
January 19, 2023
Active Directory (AD) Group Policy Objects (GPOs) are used to centrally manage user account settings, system configurations, and access to network resources. Here are some of the important benefits of using GPOs to configure shortcuts on user desktops:
Deploy shortcuts to apps, links, file objects, and shell objects.Target specific user systems based on IP address range, MAC address range…
How to demote a Domain Controller: A step-by-step guide
August 22, 2022
Are you a Windows system administrator looking for how to demote Domain Controller in your Active Directory? You have landed on the right place.There are many reasons to demote a Domain Controller. For example, if a server is needed to be a member of a standalone server or if it needs to be migrated to another domain, demotion of Domain Controller is required to be performed…
HOW TO DEPLOY EXE FILES USING GPO
August 22, 2022
Group Policy is an hierarchical infrastructure in Microsoft’s Active Directory which provides a centralized means for a network or system administrators to configure Windows servers and desktops. A virtual collection of policies constitute a Group Policy Object (GPO) and it is always identified by a Globally Unique Identifier (GUID). For a selected scope of management (SOM), the group…
How to map network drives with Group Policy
July 7, 2022
How to map network drives with Group Policy
In earlier days, system administrators relied only on logon scripts to map networking drives, a complex and time-consuming process. To eradicate these hindrances, sysadmins rely on Group Policy to map network drives. In this article, we’ll learn why Group Policy is preferred and how you can map networking drives with GPO.
Why use Group Policy…
How to change the NTFS and share permissions
February 14, 2022
Managing permissions is crucial for IT admins to ensure security and control access to files and folders. This guide explains how to modify NTFS and sharing permissions, which are both important but function differently. NTFS permissions control local access to files and folders on the disk, while share permissions manage access to shared folders over the network. Here’s how you can manage both…
Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) – Part II
May 18, 2021
Inpart Iof Group Policy Management Console (GPMC), we introduced the GPMC MMC snap-in, its functionalities and also looked at how to perform a few basic tasks. In this part, we will look at some of the other tasks that can be executed from the console.
Linking a GPO
In the GPMC, locate the domain or OU to which the GPO is to be linked and right click.To link an existing…
Microsoft has two solutions for deploying the requirements for Active Directory domain users’ passwords. The requirements, referred to as the password policy, can be deployed through Group Policy Objects (GPOs) or through Active Directory objects called fine-grained password policies (FGPPs). Both solutions have the same list of constraints, such as minimum password length and maximum…
Active Directory Account Lockout Policy
March 3, 2021
What is an Account Lockout Policy?
An account lockout policy is a built-in security policy that allows administrators to determine when and for how long a user account should be locked out. It determines what happens when a user enters a wrong password. It ensures that an attacker can’t use a brute force attack or dictionary attack to guess and crack the user’s password. This can be…
