Group Policy improvements coming

Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack for Software Assurance - luckily abbreviated to MDOP as I almost lost my breath pronouncing it - is coming May/July/Summer 2007. Some none-rebranded versions of the products are available now.

MDOP is a collection of tools/features and is only available to SA customers -

• SoftGrid software virtualization
• Microsoft Diagnostic and Recovery Toolset (read Wininternals tools)
• Microsoft Asset Inventory Services (the long awaited license management solution, also appearing in SMS 2003 SP3 as Asset Intelligence)
• Microsoft Advanced Group Policy Management (read GPOVault from DesktopStandard) - AGPM.

The focus here, is the interesting AGPM. The features are -

• Granular administrative control
• Robust delegation model
• Role-based administration
• Change request approval
• Reduced risk of widespread failures
• Offline editing of GPOs
• Difference reporting and audit logging
• Recovery of a deleted GPO
• Repair of live GPOs
• Enable effective Group Policy change management
• Creation of GPO template libraries
• Subscription to policy change e-mail notifications
• Version tracking, history capture, and quick rollback of deployed changes

Read more here.