Windows Server (2008 R2) blog by Kurt Roggen [BE]

There seem to be a lot of discussions going on about the upcoming Windows Vista SP1 and the removal of the GPMC as part of the SP1 installation.  Don't worry... it's not as bad as it sounds!!  Let me explain...

Vista Service Pack 1 will include a number of Group Policy changes.  Most controversial, the Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) will be uninstalled so that the GPEdit management console will be used to manage local policies only.

From the security point of view, it makes sense to remove the GPMC, since you do not want "standard users" snooping around in all your defined (security) GPOs through the default available and installed GPMC in Vista.

From the administrators point of view, it's scary to lose such a great tool!! 
However, Microsoft will ship an updated version of the GPMC - as part of the RSAT - around SP1 RTM timeframe, that will also let admins add comments to Group Policy Objects (GPOs) and individual GP settings, and search/filter settings within a Group Policy.

For those of you who are not familiar with RSAT, it is the next-generation adminpak.msi (Administrative Tools pack) for Windows Vista/Server 2008.  I already mentioned it briefly in a previous post (on Windows Server 2008 & Group Policy Management Console) and apparently it drew at lot of attention (based on the mails i've been receiving).

The “Remote Server Administration Tools” (RSAT – Client) is used for managing Windows Server 2008 from a Vista SP1 Business, Enterprise and Ultimate and will be released as an OOB RTW (Out-Of-Band Release-To-Web) component shortly after Vista SP1 RTM. 
In the meantime, you have to leverage the existing Admin Pack (adminpak.msi) for managing Windows Server 2003 servers remotely (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/930056) from a Vista machine.  
The "old" AdminPack will not work against Windows Server 2008, though.”

As mentioned, some features (Group Policy Management Editor filtering and commenting) and snapins (Windows Deployment Services, etc) only available on Windows Server 2008 today, will be made available as part of the Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT). 

Related reading:

Windows Server 2008 & Group Policy Management Console (GPMC)