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I need to setup between 5 - 10 computers to start with for a charity organization which can't offord to be running a dedicated server that maintains group policies for a growing number of staff. Is there a way I can manage policies of each computer without having to physically change the local security policies. The computers run a combination of Windows XP, Vista and 7.

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You might consider making a registry file of all the settings you want, and sharing it on the network. You can either manually import that file on each machine, or have it import it on startup (if you can share it on a reliable place on the network). Trouble is, if you make any significant changes, it may require a reboot before they take effect. – Brad May 31 '11 at 20:42
@Brad - Would it work across version of Windows or would I have to create separate registry files for each one of them e.g. Windows XP, Vista, etc? – PeanutsMonkey May 31 '11 at 21:05
What kind of policies are you looking to deploy? – Mark Henderson♦ May 31 '11 at 21:56
@Mark Henderson - Some of the policies would be having the ability to install updates although they are not administrators, not having access to certain drives, etc – PeanutsMonkey Jun 1 '11 at 2:53

4 Answers

up vote 3 down vote accepted

I would weigh the initial cost of setting up 10 computers one time with minimal administrative work vs. the management of a domain. For example, two domain controllers would be advisable for redundancy/reliability's sake and their configuration can take a fair bit of time. This contributes to a greater financial cost and might contribute to a greater cost in man-hours. It also adds to the complexity of your network, which will more than likely make more work for you down the line without much tangible benefit.

On the other hand, working with 10 machines local policies is comparatively cut and dry. I doubt you will be micromanaging security policies in your day to day activities. Updates can be troublesome, but properly applied once you've tested them. AV/malware/intrustion utilities can also be annoying with some minimal administration.

If you're planning for growth and you want a domain, Microsoft's BizSpark gives you access to a good portion of the MSDN downloads for free, for one year. This includes past and present versions of Windows Server and Windows OS. All you need to be is a small-ish company for use with a few loose requirements. I'm sure charities would fit without a problem.

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Thanks. Will propose Bizspark as a solution. – PeanutsMonkey Jun 1 '11 at 2:56
@Peanuts - before you do go with bizspark though, Microsoft have really, really good licensing for non-profits that are potentially even better than the BizSpark program. I would definately contact a Microsoft reseller about it. – Mark Henderson♦ Jun 1 '11 at 3:23
up vote 4 down vote

Microsoft offer a special licensing program for charities, the discounts are quite big and for just running an AD you can use two old PC's with a couple of gigs of ram.

See for details

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I agree, you don't need a big honkin server to run Active Directory for ten users. – Nate May 31 '11 at 21:00
Thanks. They have effectively spent their budget on getting new computers and licenses for the staff hence not leaving much to spend on other areas of IT. Is there a software I can say run on my laptop that would allow me to connect to all the computers on the network and define the policies for each of the users? – PeanutsMonkey May 31 '11 at 21:04
up vote 3 down vote

You might want to try TechSoup. If your organization qualifies you could probably get a copy of Window Server 2008 R2 for less than $100 dollars. I believe you'll get about 50 seat licenses with it as well. And as previously pointed out, you don't need heroic hardware to run Active Directory in your situation. You can even run other server roles without significant trouble.

If you are actually in a situation that requires Active Directory, you will find that every substitute falls far short.

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Thanks. I have heard of TechSoup so might suggest that an an option. By the way, I had posted another comment regarding domain names you had helped me answer. Would appreciate it if you could have a look at it. – PeanutsMonkey Jun 1 '11 at 2:55
up vote 0 down vote

One at a time, with a lot of mistakes.

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