Chapter 7. Desktop
This chapter covers
- Discovering a machine’s configuration
- Testing printers and printer drivers
- Working with special folders
- Working with Microsoft Office applications such as Word and Excel
This chapter closes out the part of the book dealing with users and leads into chapter 8, which opens the server administration section.
How to Use the Scripts
Many of the scripts presented in this chapter could be run interactively from the PowerShell prompt rather than as a script. If anything is run frequently, consider creating a function with the computer name as a parameter. Alternatively, PowerGUI could be utilized (see section 4.5.2).
Group Policy is used to configure and manage desktops in many corporate environments. Group Policy is a great technology that’s underutilized in many cases. Group Policy objects (GPOs) are great for configuring the computer, but they don’t report back the actual configuration. There will still be a need to investigate desktop (or server) issues even with an extensive utilization of GPO-based technologies.