Item-level targeting of preferences

by Mitch Tulloch [Published on 14 Jan. 2015 / Last Updated on 14 Jan. 2015]

A tip concerning item-level targeting for Group Policy Preferences.

The default scope of a preference item is the users or computers targeted by the GPO in which the preference item has been configured. You can modify this default scope by using item-level targeting, which you can use to create one or more targeting items for a preference item. These targeting items can be used to determine whether or not the preference item should be applied based on various conditions—for example:

  • Whether or not a battery is present in the targeted computer

  • Whether the name of the targeted computer matches the name specified in the targeting item

  • Whether an environment variable for the targeted user or computer has the value specified

The full list of different categories of targeting items is as follows:

  • Battery Present

  • Computer Name

  • CPU Speed

  • Date Match

  • Disk Space

  • Domain

  • Environment Variable

  • File Match

  • IP Address Range

  • Language

  • LDAP Query

  • MAC Address Range

  • MSI Query

  • Network Connection

  • Operating System

  • Organizational Unit

  • PCMCIA Present

  • Portable Computer

  • Processing Mode

  • RAM

  • Registry Match

  • Security Group

  • Site

  • Terminal Session

  • Time Range

  • User

  • WMI Query

The above tip was excerpted from Mitch Tulloch's book Training Guide: Installing and Configuring Windows Server 2012 from Microsoft Press.

Mitch is a nine-time recipient of the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award and a widely recognized expert on Windows administration, deployment and virtualization.  For more information see http://www.mtit.com.

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The Author — Mitch Tulloch

Mitch Tulloch is a well-known expert on Windows Server administration and cloud computing technologies. He has published over a thousand articles on information technology topics and has written, contributed to or been series editor for over 50 books.

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