Disallow group policy actions on local computer joined to domain

Is this user account a member of the local administrators on the Windows 7 box?  If so, the account only has broad privileges on the local windows 7 machine.

I'm not sure if I understood you correctly but if this is regular user in the domain and only local administrator on your Windows 7 machine then this is not possible by deafult. Regular users cannot create/change/delete anything in a domain when they have no delegated rights for that.

User added into local administrators may only create local group/users on that Windows 7 machine only. And it is not possible to limit that user to not create local users/groups because he/she is a local administrator :) So, the only one option is to remove it from local administrators group

Regards,
Krzysztof

BT: Yes, the user account is a member of local admin on Win 7 box. The account should have broad previleges on local Win 7 machine and that's not an issue. The issue is, no one else should be able to add himself/ herself into the local admin group, not even those who have domain admin rights as the machine is part of and attached to domain. How can this user prevent domain admins from giving themelves or other domain users, elevated previleges on this machine.

iSeik: As related previously as an answer to BT's query, the need is to stop everyone across the IT system admins to do anything on this Win7 laptop without it's owners knowledge / explicit approval while keeping him attached to domain.


Basically, there is a laptop holding confidential info, that needs to be attached to domain but restricted from making changes applicable via domain wide group policy and even out of bounds from domain admins.

Local admin rights to be retained by machine owner who is also a domain user but added into local admin group and that's fine.

In the long run, I don't think you can do what you are looking for.  You can use the group policy to manage the membership of the local admin, but the domain admins have the ability to alter group policy.  The group policy solution works if you are keeping honest people honest.

Detlef: Your links seems promising, especially first one. The other one talks about certain scripts which probably are available only to university's staff members.

BT: I guessed that but thought there still maybe a way out hence I asked.

Mcknife: Disconnecting from domain is an option but I wouldn't want the user to loose out on his ability to print to domain authenticated printers and the user is a frequent traveller. Also, DHCP is AD integrated and the user doesn't get a valid IP that allows him into the right subnet and access email servers, AV servers etc., unless authenticated to domain.

iSeik: Will test the links out, can you re-confirm if your solution cannot be overidden by domain admins?

No, it can be. Domain Admins is one of the most powerful groups in the domain. They will always be able to modify GPO

I would consider AD RMS if you have confidential data on that notebook and provide certificate only to those people who need an access to read/modify documents. Only in this case Domain Admins will not be able to do anything with data

Krzysztof

If you main concern in the long run is monitor who, what and when changes are made in AD, the I suggest to invest in a enterprise wide monitor solution like Quest Change Auditor for Active Directory. When you it at my company and it is a "priceless" tool...

http://www.quest.com/changeauditor/