Platform Dependencies

GPMC exposes features that are available in the underlying operating system. Because new features have been added to Group Policy since Windows 2000, certain features will only be available in GPMC depending on the operating system that has been deployed on the domain controllers and clients. This section describes these dependencies. In general, there are four key issues that determine whether a feature is available in GPMC:

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Windows Server 2003 Active Directory schema must be available to delegate Group Policy Modeling or Group Policy Results
•
Windows Server 2003 domain controller must be available to run Group Policy Modeling
•
Windows Server 2003 domain configuration (ADPrep /DomainPrep) must be available to use WMI Filters
•
Clients must be running Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 in order to generate Group Policy Results data.

Windows and Active Directory platform dependencies are summarized below
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Dependency

Windows Server 2003 Active Directory Schema

Feature

Delegation of Group Policy Modeling and Group Policy Results

Reason

The Generate Resultant Set of Policy (Logging) and Generate Resultant Set of Policy (Planning) permissions needed for this operation are only available with the Windows Server 2003 Active Directory schema
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Dependency

Windows Server 2003 Domain Controller in the forest

Feature
Group Policy Modeling

Reason

The simulation is performed by the Resultant Set of Policy Service which is only available on domain controllers running Windows Server 2003
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Dependency

Windows Server 2003 domain configuration (DomainPrep)

Feature

WMI Filters

Reason

ADPREP /DomainPrep configures the domain for Windows 2003 Active Directory including configuration for WMI Filters
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Dependency

Clients must be running Windows XP or Windows Server 2003

Feature

Group Policy Results

Reason

Clients must be instrumented to log Group Policy Results data when policy is processed. This capability is only available on the listed systems
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There is no dependency from the Group Policy perspective on whether a domain is in native mode or mixed mode.