Quest Software, Inc. (Nasdaq: QSFT), a leading provider of application, database and infrastructure management solutions, today announced the general availability of version 2.5 of Quest Group Policy Manager. Group Policy Manager helps administrators create, test and implement Windows Group Policy in a controlled way. With this new version, the product has been redesigned with a client/server architecture for more granular and secure delegation of authority to make changes to Group Policy. In addition, change reporting and notification features have been significantly enhanced.

“The Microsoft Group Policy Management Console provides a strong foundation for managing Group Policy,” said Jackson Shaw, senior director of product management for Active Directory and Integration Solutions, Quest Software. “With Group Policy Manager we build on the strong foundation of GPMC to give administrators even greater, more granular control over Group Policy. Through the integration offered by our Vintela Authentication Services product, the power of Group Policy can also now be extended to Unix and Linux environments.”

New features in Group Policy Manager 2.5 include:

• Client/server architecture – This new architecture locks down Active Directory so that no changes to Group Policy can be made outside the Group Policy Manager application.
• Container hierarchy view – Administrators can organize Group Policy Objects (GPOs) into containers and sub-containers for user-defined levels of granularity in granting permission to change GPOs.
• Improved notification system – Group Policy administrators can subscribe to automated notification when changes are made to specified GPOs, and these notifications include one-click access to complete detail on all changes made.
• User-defined labels – History comments can be included in the form of labels, easing rollback to earlier GPO versions identified by specific labels.
• New troubleshooting reports – New reports are provided to help users diagnose or troubleshoot Group Policy issues. These include reports on GPO consistency, linked/unlinked Group Policy, GPO security reports and more.

In addition, because Quest’s Vintela Authentication Services allows Unix and Linux systems to join the Active Directory domain – functionally extending the benefit of Group Policy into Unix and Linux environments – non-Windows GPOs can also be natively managed through Group Policy Manager.“As attractive as it is, Group Policy can still be complex,” said Nick Nikols, senior analyst, Burton Group. “For example, the more GPOs a manager applies to a user, the more complex it is to manage user settings. However, when used properly, Group Policy can greatly improve a company’s administrative efficiency and security.”