Outlook Anywhere (RPC/HTTP) settings are unavailable in the Outlook 2010 Group Policy template !!

One of our customer asked me about how he can set Outlook anywhere – RPC over HTTP – settings for all of his company users.

I simply answered that the best way to perform this action would be using of  group policy with Office 2010 administrative templates . We just downloaded Office 2010 Administrative Template files , imported it using Group Policy Management Console ( GPMC ).

Upon looking for Outlook Anywhere settings all what we can found was “Configure Outlook Anywhere user interface options”

Group Policy Settings Reference for Windows Server 8 [ Windows Server 2012 ]

Group policy is one of the most important aspects for all IT admins ; Lately Microsoft Group Policy team released Group Policy Settings Reference for Windows Server "8" Beta and Windows "8" Consumer Preview spreadsheet ; This spreadsheet lists the policy settings for computer and user configurations included in the Administrative template files (admx/adml) delivered with Windows Server® "8" Beta. The policy settings included in this spreadsheet cover Windows "8" Consumer Preview, Windows Server "8" Beta, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista with SP1, Microsoft Windows Server 2003 with SP2 or earlier service packs, Windows XP Professional with SP2 or earlier service packs, and Windows 2000 with SP5 or earlier service packs. These files are used to expose policy settings when you edit Group Policy objects (GPOs) using the Group Policy Management Console (GPMC). 

You can use the filtering capabilities included in this spreadsheet to view a specific subset of data based on one value or a combination of values that are available in one or more of the columns. In addition, you can click Custom in the drop-down list of any of the column headings to add additional filtering criteria within that column. To view a specific subset of data, click the drop-down arrow in the column heading of cells that contain the value or combination of values on which you want to filter, and then click the desired value in the drop-down list. For example, to view a subset of policy settings that are available for Windows Server 8 Beta in the Administrative Template worksheet, click the drop-down arrow next to Supported On, and then click At least Microsoft Windows Server 8 Beta.

What's New for Windows Server "8" Beta and Windows "8" Consumer Preview? 

The spreadsheet contains three columns that provide more information about each policy setting's behavior related to reboots, logoffs, and schema extensions. These columns are the following: 

• Reboot Required: A "Yes" in this column means Windows requires a restart before it applies the described policy setting.
• Logoff Required: A "Yes" in this column means Windows requires the user to log off and log on again before it applies the described policy setting.
• Active Directory Schema or Domain Requirements: A "Yes" in this column means you extend your Active Directory Schema before deploying this policy setting.

You can get it directly from here

Sysvol migration from FRS to DFS-R in a nutshell

Windows Server 2008 introduced DFS-R as a new technology for Sysvol replication . It this post I'll illustrate the migration from the old , commonly used replication technique [ File Replication Service - RFS ] to the newly introduced replication technique [ Distributed File System Replication - DFS-R ].

First of all a question arise "Why to migrate your sysvol ?"

The answer simply is , by using DFS-R for your sysvol you gain the following benefits : 

   

• Efficient, scalable and reliable file replication protocol which has been tested extensively to ensure data consistency in multi-master replication scenarios.

• Differential replication of changes to files using the Remote Differential Compression (RDC) algorithm, which enhances efficiency in branch office scenarios.
• Flexible scheduling and bandwidth throttling mechanisms. 
• Self-heals from USN journal wraps and database corruptions – end user intervention and monitoring requirement is minimal. 
•  Provides a new UI management tool (MMC snap-in) for ease of administration. 
• Provides built in health monitoring tools for ease of monitoring deployments. 
• Improved support for Read Only Domain Controllers.