4.1. Group Policy Software Installation (GPSI) Overview

Without any third-party software distribution mechanism (such as SCCM 2007 (what was known as SMS) or Altiris, most environments require that you spend most of your time running from desktop to desktop. In a typical scenario, a user is hired and fills out the human resources paperwork, and a computer with the standard suite of software is dropped on their desk.

Usually this machine comes from some sort of "deployment farm" in the back office, where scads of machines are imaged (a la Symantec's Ghost) by the scores. Or, maybe the team is using Microsoft Deployment techniques as specified in Chapter 1.

The user then starts to surf the Internet—er, I mean—get to work. Soon enough, it's discovered ...

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