{"id":73,"date":"2010-06-01T04:06:47","date_gmt":"2010-06-01T04:06:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.itcrumbs.com\/?p=73"},"modified":"2019-02-07T04:40:47","modified_gmt":"2019-02-07T04:40:47","slug":"group-policy-preferences-colorful-and-mysteriously-powerful-just-like-windows-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.itcrumbs.com\/?p=73","title":{"rendered":"Group Policy Preferences : Colorful and Mysteriously Powerful, just like Windows 7"},"content":{"rendered":"

http:\/\/blogs.technet.com\/b\/grouppolicy\/archive\/2009\/11\/02\/group-policy-preferences-colorful-and-mysteriously-powerful-just-like-windows-7.aspx<\/a><\/p>\n

How could something like CRUD be desirable? In Group Policy world, even the impossible becomes possible. In this entry, you\u2019ll discover why Red does not mean Error and what the different colors mean when you make a Preference item. Read on!<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s talk about some of the intricacies of Preferences, specifically what we fondly refer to as CRUD options. Now, keep in mind, CRUD only applies to \u201cstuff\u201d, meaning things you can create and delete on the client, like mapped drives<\/a> and shortcuts<\/a> and printers<\/a>. There are no CRUD options for things you just make changes to but don\u2019t create, like \u201cfolder options\u201d. More on this at the end. <\/p>\n

Despite it\u2019s unfortunate acronym, CRUD is very useful. It is also the reason those little spots of color get associated with you new Preference items. Select one of the four actions from the drop down menu to choose between Create, Replace, Update, and Delete. That decides how your Preference item will be pushed onto the client. Let\u2019s take drive mappings as an example. <\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This is the Preference item<\/p>\n

\n

(in UI)                                                                                             (in XML)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"image\"<\/a> \"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Now, under the \u201cAction\u201d drop down, you have four options :  C<\/strong>reate, R<\/strong>eplace, U<\/strong>pdate, D<\/strong>elete<\/p>\n

Create \u2013 If a drive mapping doesn\u2019t exist for this user for the share \u201c\\\\share\\userDocuments\\\u201d,  then create one. If there already is one, don\u2019t do anything! It\u2019s a kind, gentle sort of policy, it won\u2019t overwrite anything you already have, so it has a Green icon associated in the UI.\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Replace \u2013 Remove whatever drive mapping exists for this share, and create a new one with these settings. If there isn\u2019t one, just create it. No matter what, you\u2019re getting this drive mapping, whether something existed there or not. It\u2019s very insistent, like the bully of the CRUD options, so it gets a Red icon.  <\/p>\n

Update \u2013 Yellow \u2013 If that drive mapping exists, it will be updated with the settings specified here. If there are other settings associated with the drive mapping that aren\u2019t specified here, they will be maintained. If no drive mapping exists for this share, create it. Nothing gets blasted away like with the Replace setting, but there is still a chance that you\u2019ll overwrite something, so it gets a Yellow icon (warning! make sure you know what you\u2019re going to be over-writing!). <\/p>\n

Delete \u2013 X mark \u2013 If that drive mapping exists, it will be removed. That\u2019s it, it\u2019s just removed, so it gets an \u2018x\u2019 icon. It does not roll back, it gets deleted. <\/p>\n

What did we learn? Red does not mean error! X marks the (delete) spot. Another picky note is that if you choose the \u201cremove when no longer applicable\u201d option under the common tab, it\u2019ll force the CRUD action to Replace. <\/p>\n

So, really, I\u2019d recommend reading the help associated with each Preference item to make sure you know what you\u2019re doing.  <\/p>\n

Hope that helps!<\/p>\n

liliaG aka @superlilia<\/p>\n

P.S. The end! Here\u2019s more on my stuff vs. state discussion. Stuff <\/em>means something that can be created or deleted on the client machine \/ user account. Think of at is as something you can see appear. It has a new icon that becomes associated with it: when you add a new printer, an icon appears that looks like that printer in your Devices window. When you add a shortcut to the desktop, that shortcut appears. Similarly, when you remove a local security group, it is gone, the icon is removed, the group no longer exists. That doesn\u2019t mean that not all local security groups are gone, just that instance of one.  <\/p>\n

State<\/em> is a state of being, like folder options. You can\u2019t \u201ccreate\u201d a folder options, but you can make changes like \u201cShow all hidden files\u201d. <\/p>\n

GP Preferences has both of these types of things, but CRUD only applies to the stuff<\/em> bits. You can\u2019t configure CRUD for state<\/em>, and the UI isn\u2019t there to let you try. <\/p>\n

P.P.S. Here\u2019s the help in the product:<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

http:\/\/blogs.technet.com\/b\/grouppolicy\/archive\/2009\/11\/02\/group-policy-preferences-colorful-and-mysteriously-powerful-just-like-windows-7.aspx How could something like CRUD be desirable? In Group Policy world, even the impossible becomes possible. In this entry, you\u2019ll discover why Red does not mean Error and what the different colors mean when you make a Preference item. Read on! Let\u2019s talk about some of the intricacies of Preferences, specifically what we fondly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itcrumbs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itcrumbs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itcrumbs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itcrumbs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itcrumbs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=73"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.itcrumbs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":826,"href":"https:\/\/www.itcrumbs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73\/revisions\/826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itcrumbs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=73"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itcrumbs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=73"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itcrumbs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=73"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}