When to implement Group Policy

[shaftoe]

I am helping a company that has around forty users on a Windows 2003 Server network. The user machines run 2K Pro or XP. Our IT contractor says that with so few users it is not worth the effort to implement Group Policy. However I am facing a host of user and network problems that have resulted from machines and MS Office applications that were not configured uniformly, or well, when installed and I wonder if our vendor might be more authoritative than competent.

Since I will have to visit each machine at least once to get things squared away, it wouldn't save me much trouble initially to implement Group Policies. But in the interest of future efficiencies wouldn't that be a good area to focus once I get the fires put out?

 

[basspro]

I believe that 40 PC's definitely call for group polices. Even though there is somewhat of a learning curve to setting up group polices and implementing I have always found that the time spent on group polices will normally always be less than the time spent attempting to address PC's individually. Furthermore, by using group polices you will be able to centralize enforcement.

 

[buddafish]

I agree with basspro - GP's for sure. Make your job easier, take LAN management to your desktop...

scottie