CompTIA A_ Certification All-In-One Exam Guide, Seventh Edition - Michael Meyers [461]
Want to set default wallpaper for every PC in your domain? Group Policy can do that. Want to make certain tools inaccessible to everyone except authorized users? Group Policy can do that, too. Want to control access to the Internet, redirect home folders, run scripts, deploy software, or just remind folks that unauthorized access to the network will get them nowhere fast? Group Policy is the answer. Figure 26-8 shows Group Policy; I’m about to change the default title on every instance of Internet Explorer on every computer in my domain!
Figure 26-8 Using Group Policy to make IE title say “provided by Mike!”
That’s just one simple example of the settings you can configure by using Group Policy. You can apply literally hundreds of tweaks through Group Policy, from the great to the small, but don’t worry too much about familiarizing yourself with each and every one. Group Policy settings are a big topic on most of the Microsoft certification tracks, but for the purposes of the CompTIA A+ exams, you simply have to be comfortable with the concept behind Group Policy.
Although I could never list every possible policy you can enable on a Windows system, here’s a list of some commonly used ones:
Prevent Registry Edits If you try to edit the Registry, you get a failure message.
Prevent Access to the Command Prompt Keeps users from getting to the command prompt by turning off the Run command and the MS-DOS Prompt shortcut.
Log on Locally Defines who may log on to the system locally.
Shut Down System Defines who may shut down the system.
Minimum Password Length Forces a minimum password length.
Account Lockout Threshold Sets the maximum number of logon attempts a person can make before being locked out of the account.
Disable Windows Installer Prevents users from installing software.
Printer Browsing Enables users to browse for printers on the network, as opposed to using only assigned printers.
Although the CompTIA A+ exams don’t expect you to know how to implement policies on any type of network, you are expected to understand that policies exist, especially on Windows networks, and that they can do amazing things to control what users can do on their systems. If you ever try to get to a command prompt on a Windows system only to discover the Run command is dimmed, blame it on a policy, not the computer!
Data Classification and Compliance
Larger organizations, such as government entities, benefit greatly from organizing their data according to its sensitivity—what’s called data classification—and making certain that computer hardware and software stay as uniform as possible. In addition, many government and internal regulations apply fairly rigorously to the organizations.
Data classification systems vary by the organization, but a common scheme classifies documents as public, internal use only, highly confidential, top secret, and so on. Using a classification scheme enables employees such as techs to know very quickly what to do with documents, the drives containing documents, and more. Your strategy for recycling a computer system left from a migrated user, for example, will differ a lot if the data on the drive was classified as internal use only or top secret.
Compliance means, in a nutshell, that members of an organization or company must abide by or comply with all of the rules that apply to the organization or company. Statutes with funny names such as Sarbanes-Oxley impose certain behaviors or prohibitions on what people can and cannot do in the workplace.
From a technician’s point of view, the most common compliance issue revolves around software, such as what sort of software users can be allowed to install on their computers or, conversely, why