How To Design Administrative Templates To Manage Application Features

By Author: iris
Total Articles: 286
Comment this article

This section first describes what administrative templates are and then explains how to configure and use 70-680 Exam administrative templates and how to analyze administrative template settings to control application features.

Administrative templates are files that can be loaded into a GPO and provide a way for an administrator to specify operating system utility and application settings. When a GPO is applied to a computer, the registry changes are made. Administrative templates provide a vast range of controls, some of which apply security for applications and many of which are not directly security related, but are instead simple application con?figuration related. Many of the application features can become security issues if users are allowed to configure them. The reasons for this are not always obvious, but best practices tell us that the following application features should be managed:
Version control should be managed CompTIA so that you'll know what you have to patch and how to fix it.
The number of user ...
... sellable options should be reduced to as close to zero as possible.
Security items such as encryption and authentication should be configured to the securest setting the clients and servers can both use.
Tip Unlike security templates, administrative templates cannot be configured and then linked to GPOs. Administrative templates are, however, distinct files and can be created, loaded, or unloaded from a GPO and then used to establish security settings.
Operating system administrative templates are part of the operating system product and are installed by default. They are either computer-based or user-based and are used to modify values in the user or computer hives of the registry. In addition to oper?ating system administrative templates, application-specific templates are available.

Office templates can also be used in the Systems Policy Editor, a tool provided for Windows 98 and Windows NT 4.0 that can be used to apply Systems Policy. Systems Policy is a way to provide a a+ certification download of registry settings that are applied to a client at logon.