Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2 added lot of settings to Group Policy. Windows Vista is coming in with even more new settings to Group Policy. The number of Group Policy settings has increased from approximately 1,700 in Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1 (SP1) to approximately 2,400 in Windows Vista and Windows Server “Longhorn”.
There are lot to say about policy, but i thought i can blog on the policies on Removable storage devices. I believe every enterprise administrator would agree with me that how hectic is to protect the network from this removable storage devices. What not they can cause? introducing worms or viruses on the network or even worser thing which you can’t imagine.
The following statistics on Removable storage settings were taken from Mike Stephens, Group Policy Blog.
Mike is a Technical Writer in Group Policy technology.
| Quote: |
| – Vista provides 32 policy settings to control removable storage. 16 computer settings and 16 equivalent user settings provide the ability to control removable storage.- The device categories include: CD and DVD, Floppy Drives, Removable Disks (such as key drives), Tape Drives, PAP Devices (such as media player devices), and WPD Devices (includes cell phone, auxiliary displays, and WinCE devices).- In addition, there is a policy setting to control classes of custom devices as well as a policy to control ALL removable devices. Each device category may restrict read access, write access or both.
– These policy settings are Windows Vista policy settings and apply only to computers running Windows Vista. Have no fear, these policy settings can co-exist in policies that apply to clients earlier than Windows Vista. Operating systems other than Windows Vista will ignore the settings. |
Desktop Central also has plans to support these policies which are needed for securing the network from removable storage devices.
