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2012 Domain With 350 Machines All Running Windows 7

Good Afternoon Everyone,

I have just setup a new 2012 Domain and will be moving all of my machines over to it as we setup office 365 and Dir Sync. I have a few GPO's such as folder Redirects, Icons On Desktops, Web root MSI install.

I have a few questions though.

What can i do to avoid problems with software updates i.e Adobe, Chrome, flash ect is there a monitoring software or something i can do to stay on top of this as there is always the one user who has to have a web-meeting and there flash player is out of date and needs it right now or didn't attend the meeting and later blames IT

  1. I have GPO installing updates each night and then rebooting if needed
  2. I was thinking of Deploying Printers Via GPO any thoughts on that We have about 10-15 per locations and there are 6 locations
  3. Also Has anyone had experience with Azure sync and password changes will this mean when my users change there AD password and it syncs with Office 365 will they be prompted to put it in when they open outlook? The new password? "The reason i ask is we have it set to SYNC every 15 minutes so if a user changes his or her password then logs in and opens outlook the passwords won't sync. I guess it will work until it syncs and then ask them for a password?
  4. Also is there any other GPO's that you think will help
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Avatar of Lee W, MVP
Lee W, MVP
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miconib

ASKER

Hmmm looks interesting I'll check it out
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ASKER

anyone else?
Azure AD Connect will sync credentials just fine -- there will be no need to enter a password when opening Outlook (except for the first time).

For printers, deploying via 2012-R2 GPO is really easy.  A brief how-to is here:
https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/canitpro/2015/02/03/step-by-step-setting-up-printers-via-group-policy/

Then, for monitoring ninite pro is good if all you want to do is keep 3rd party apps up to date.  There are also Windows Updates, and basic health, as well as providing remote assistance to users when needed.  I'm a pretty big fan of Atera for this
As Jeffrey said, AAD connect will sync credentials without issue- also directory sync every 15 minutes but password sync happens more frequently and in most cases should be just a couple of minutes instead of full wait time, difficult to find any (reliable) articles stating the exact time, but some say it's 3 minutes.

MSDN only says " when a password has been changed by an on-premises user, the password synchronization feature detects and synchronizes the changed password, most often in a matter of minutes."

If these are all copies of the same machine(s) you can use DSC scripts to ensure consistency among all of your machines, you can also use Puppet or Chef to manage them and keep them  in the state that you want them. This also means you can handle updates across all of them 'programmatically'. you can also break your puppet/chef groups or machines affected by DSC by groups or locations to fit your 6 locations appropriately. So I suggest looking up tutorials for those 3 and choosing the one that is best for you.
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ASKER

ok so it sounds like ninitepro is the best solution for keeping apps up to date.
Seriously -- that was the only part of your question you wanted answered?  Why ask the rest then?