Installation policy depending on workstation version

[dmatten00]

I have a mixed set of Win2000 and XP workstations for which I want
to apply/not apply certain installation policies according to the
workstation version, ie, one package for 2000 machines, a different one
for XP machines. The 2000 package will not operate on the XP machines,
and the XP package will not run on the 2000 machines. They all belong
the the same OU.

Is there a way for a policy to check the workstation version before
applying itself, or do I have to manually create OUs or Security
Group(s) for each type? AD seems to know the version, so it seems a
sensible thing that a policy be able to use this information.

 

[T. Uranjek]

Hi!

You could use WMI filter, to check OS version. Create one WMI filter for XP
and WMI filter one for W2K workstations and link them to appropriate GPO.

HTH

Toni

 

[Florian Frommherz]

Howdie Toni!

You could use WMI filter, to check OS version. Create one WMI filter for XP
and WMI filter one for W2K workstations and link them to appropriate GPO.

Windows 2000 workstations do not process WMI filters. They will always
process the Group Policy, no matter what the WMI query result or WMI
filter looks like. They just ignore it. WMI filtering is only for
Windows XP+ clients.

cheers,

Florian

 

[Florian Frommherz]

Howdie!

I have a mixed set of Win2000 and XP workstations for which I want
to apply/not apply certain installation policies according to the
workstation version, ie, one package for 2000 machines, a different one
for XP machines. The 2000 package will not operate on the XP machines,
and the XP package will not run on the 2000 machines. They all belong
the the same OU.

Is there a way for a policy to check the workstation version before
applying itself, or do I have to manually create OUs or Security
Group(s) for each type? AD seems to know the version, so it seems a
sensible thing that a policy be able to use this information.

I think you will need to create two security Groups for your
workstations. One for Windows 2000 and one for the Windows XP clients.
You can then filter security and deny "Apply Group Policy" NTFS rights.
If you have multiple Group Policies like this, you could maybe think
about create an OU structure that enables you to work with specific GPs:
myClientsOU
- myWindows2000clients
- myWindowsXPclients

....

cheers,

Florian