Dec. 13, 2007
MCPmag.com News
http://MCPmag.com
Greg's Weekly quickTIP: Office 2007 and Group Policy
Control; Coffee
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REDMOND RADIO: Patch Tuesday; Hezi Moore of Reflex Security;
More
WEEKLY QUICKTIP: Office 2007 and Group Policy Control -- You
Need It
WHAT'S HAPPENINGS ON RCPMAG.COM:
- Knowledge Is Power: Who's Who at Redmond
- It's Almost All Good
- Where the Dollars Are
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REDMOND RADIO: IT News, Dec. 10
This week: Patch Tuesday preview; Microsoft tests Windows
for $100
laptop project; slowing economy to impact IT growth;
interview with
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Weekly quickTIP: Office 2007 and Group Policy Control -- You
Need It
Microsoft makes managing Office easier done than said, as
long as you
remember the GPA templates. Plus: quick guide to espresso
for admins.
By Greg Shields
We administrators often deal with Microsoft Office in a
relatively
unmanaged state. Office's installation routine allows for
the
component-wise installation of just those pieces you want
your users
to use. But once the installation is complete, controlling
its
configuration wasn't something we often concerned ourselves
with.
But that doesn't need to be the case. For the latest
versions of
Office, Microsoft has released a set of pre-generated Group
Policy
Administrative Templates that allow you to lock down,
centrally
control, and otherwise manage the configuration of your
Office
installations. If you haven't incorporated these templates
into your
regular Group Policy management, you're losing out on the
ability
to control virtually every facet of Office.
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For Office 2007, these Administrative Templates are located
at the
Web site: http://g
o.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=78161 . Downloading
them provides you with 15 ADM files that contain plenty of
configurable and controllable settings within the Office
suite.
Getting down into very detailed settings, these
Administrative
Templates enable control of things like default save
location and
file types all the way down to nitpicky items like
"Disable the
Free/Busy item in the person name Smart Tag menu."
Whew!
Templates are available not only for the traditional Office
components like Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint and Outlook,
but
also for newer services like the Outlook Calendar Printing
Assistant, Groove client, Office Communicator, OneNote and
SharePoint. Publisher, Visio, InfoPath, and Project get
similar
attention.
In a bizarre twist within a Microsoft world of ADMX files,
the
Office 2007 Administrative Templates all arrive as
old-school ADM
files, which means you won't be adding these templates to
your
Central Store.
The easiest way to use them is to copy them to the
C:WindowsInf
folder on the computer where you plan to use the Group
Policy
Management Console. Once there, the GPMC will automatically
add
the templates into each GPO you edit.
THE BEST COFFEE ON THE PLANET
Let's take a break from the usual IT madness and talk about
something real important to me: One pervasive characteristic
of we
IT people is our overwhelming support of caffeinated
beverages.
Whether your vice is Mountain Dew, Red Bull or just plain
coffee,
the ol' caffeine is what keeps many of us going on those
34-hour days.
For me, coffee is my passion. So much so that a few years
ago I
invested in this professional-level espresso machine, the
Expobar
Brewtus htt
p://www.wholelattelove.com/Expobar/brewtus.cfm . It's
not
cheap, but at the same time, rated for some 20 or more years
of
service lifetime if you keep 'er clean.
Along with machines of that quality also comes a fairly
cantankerous
need for the very best of fresh-roasted coffee. In fact,
I've become
so much of a coffee snob, that I won't put any coffee in the
machine
that's not been fresh roasted within the past few days.
There are
three places here in the country who have what I consider to
be the
very best coffee on the planet. They all have Web sites, so
I
figured I'd share them with you.
http://www.espressoviva
ce.com -- First, the very best coffee anywhere
comes straight outta' Seattle. David Schomer's coffee house
is the
birthplace of much of today's modern espresso-making
science. Get
yourself some of the Dolce and some of the Vita to try them
both.
He'll fresh roast them and FedEx next-day-air them to you
the next
day. It's a religious experience.
I've even bought his book, Techniques of the Barista, which
singlehandedly has helped me make a better cuppa' Joe every
single
time, while at the same time annoying my wife when I
complain that
others can't. If you have an espresso machine and don't have
this
book, then you're probably doing something wrong with your
technique.
http://www.kaladicoffee.c
om -- The second is Kaladi Coffee, right
here in Denver. I've chatted a number of times with Mark
Overly about
his place and his coffee-making over time. Unfortunately, I
moved a
few years ago to a different part of town, which means I
don't get
over there as much. Their coffee is similarly roasted right
onsite
and is always fresh. His Peru Andes Gold is so good, it can
kill you.
The unique thing about Mark's beliefs is that he is one of
the people
who believes that coffee should be stored in the
refrigerator. This
is a huge debate in the coffee world, and although this
disagrees
with David's advice, I tend to agree with Mark on this one.
http://www.copperdoor
coffee.com -- The new kid on the block, Copper
Door Coffee is a place that's recently opened shop near my
house
here. If you live close enough (and I mean really close),
Sinjin
will even deliver it to your door. He does
extremely-small-batch
coffees, so much so that an order might take an extra day or
two
as he waits for them to collect into a large enough order to
send
out. But it's worth the wait. His dark Columbian and dark
Brazil
roasts are impressive.
Do you have other roasts or roasters that just blow you
away? I'd
love to hear about them. Either send me an e-mail or --
better yet
-- post it as a comment so we all can see.
My Brewtus just loves to make new friends...
Comment: http://mcpmag.com/columns/article.asp?editorialsid=2
412#post
Greg Shields, MCSE: Security, CCEA, is an independent
author,
instructor, and consultant based in Denver, Colo. A
contributing
editor to Redmond magazine, MCPmag.com and a popular speaker
at
TechMentor events, Greg's recent book "Windows Server
2008:
What's New/What's Changed" is now available at
www.sapienpress.com.
Greg is resident editor for Realtime Publishers' Windows
Server
Community, www.realtime-windowsserver.com, providing daily
commentary and expert advice for readers. gshieldsredmondmag.com
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WHAT'S HAPPENINGS ON RCPMAG.COM:
MCPs can get a better grasp of what Microsoft has planned
for 2008 by
getting checking out Redmond Channel Partner. This month,
RCPmag.com
singles out key Microsoft executives who will make a
difference for
the company and its growing partner base in the coming year.
Plus,
check out all the other choice content online:
- Knowledge Is Power: Who's Who at Redmond
Ballmer, Raikes, Watson are names we know already. Here's a
list of
other Microsoft execs -- like Flinders, Bennani and Park and
17
others -- that partners should keep in their sites. By Anne
Stuart
http://rcpmag.com/features/article.aspx?editorialsid=23
77
- It's Almost All Good
RCP's most recent reader survey reveals that Microsoft
partners are
a happy bunch -- satisfied with the partner program and
excited to
be working with the software giant. However, that doesn't
mean that
everything's perfect in the Microsoft channel. A few
concerns
remain, even in good times. By Lee Pender
http://rcpmag.com/features/article.aspx?editorialsid=23
78
- Where the Dollars Are
While past performance is no guarantee of future results,
Microsoft
partners that serve the financial-services industry report
that
business is brisk -- despite the recent chaos on Wall
Street.
By Rich Freeman
http://rcpmag.com/features/article.aspx?editorialsid=23
79
Next month, in the January 2008 issue, RCPmag.com maps out a
2008
partnering game plan for those anticipating brisk business
with
the major launch of Windows 2008 and other key technologies
throughout
the year.
For more insights, check out the rest of the issue at
http://rcpmag.com/issue/
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