Group Policies: Assigned Versus Published Software Deployment

Thanks mikeleebrla!

Yea im not sure what the purpose of published is.  I tried setting MSN 7.0 as published and it wouldnt do much. It did exist in add/remove programs but there was only a "remove" button, no install.  So i did a GP for the "Domain Computer" group instead of users and assigned it under Computer Policies. Once the users logged in it would actually install the program.

Thanks for clearing things up. :)

also make sure you check which type of policy you are applying when you set up GPOs.  

for example if you set a computer policy, but apply it to the Users OU (organizational unit) it won't do anything.  

remember that computer policies have to be applied to OUs that have computer members  and that user policies have to be applied on OUs that have user members.

in addition they also have to have read and "apply group policy" rights to the GPO in order for them to take effect.

Alright thanks for the extra info.  I had to find out the hard way by testing out every possiblity on a test machine haha. I should have asked this question first before I started testing :)

Just out of curiosity, what do you use? For software deployment, do you use Computer or User policies? Its hard to tell which one to use.

Thanks.

i think you are misunderstanding,, you dont get to choose if a policy is a computer policy or a user policy.  MS decides this for you.  When you are in the group policy editor,, certain settings are under user polices, and certain settings are under computer polices.  in any case, you assign/publish policies to users as it is in the "computer polices" section.

Hmm i see. So it all depends on if its applied to a OU or a computer correct?

I get confused at the software deployment option in bouth Computer and User policies.

Like I know if you deploy software under user policies, the software will install for the user when logging in. And if you deploy the software under Computer policies, the software will install when the computer is reset or if someone logs in and the instalation applies to all users.

Its hard for me to know which kind of deployment to use since there are two options.

I apologize if I am not seeing the big picture here :/

nope,,

OUs can have computers as members OR users as members or both.

GPOs can only be applied to OUs or the entire domain.

ahhh that totally makes sense. I was applying it to the whole domain so thats how I got confused. I did not know you can create a OU for computers. I thought you can only create groups so I was deploying the software on Domain Computers group.  This probably isnt a good idea because the policty would apply to ALL computers in the domain! oops :p

Thanks for everything mikeleebrla I appreciate it.