Application Access and Reducing Numbers Of Images
Drowning in Images
Many corporations have individual desktop management images (whether administered through Group Policy or not) for desktops, laptops and shared computers - a variety of different images across the spectrum of one organization. It's also common to see "derivative" images from these original images. That is, images that set specific applications with specific settings. So, even though everyone in the company gets Microsoft Office and Adobe Acrobat Reader, there's a special image for various workstations because they each have their own special application access settings embedded within those images.
It's the rare organization that can get it down to just one or two images in total. But even if you are that lucky, are you really "done" configuring the machine once it's on the desktop? Likely not.
Sure, you've embedded the actual applications into the image (or deployed your applications using a Change and Configuration Management (CCM) tool.), but does your process, imaging tool or CCM tool configure the "last mile" for the user? Do you currently have a solution in place to manage the end user's application access settings? With 2, 10, 20 or 50 applications on the desktop -- once you deploy that image, are you considering what's still left to be done? And are you leaving that "last mile" configuration up to the end user?
Let's continue on. Down the road, what happens if the corporate standard changes for an application's specific settings? Are you going to modify the "gold image", update the one application and then re-image each machine based upon the new settings? Will you do this all over again when the next corporate standard changes? Or, if you use Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V), are you re-sequencing your applications -- just to modify settings -- then re-deploying those back out to end users' desktops?
If you're drowning in images that handle your application access configuration settings, or if you have a low number of images, but no process to manipulate the end user's application settings, then you're going to love PolicyPak Group Policy software.
With PolicyPak, you no longer have to embed application settings within your images. Nor will you have to "walk around" and manually configure application settings once an image is deployed. You'll deploy the application in the same way you always have (with an imaging tool, CCM or App-V). The application's settings will then be delivered using Active Directory Group Policy the first time the user logs on and ensured during refresh.
Think about it: pre-configured application settings will just be "waiting there" for the user -- pre-set and ready to rock; all the security settings your application Group Policy needs is already down on that system. You don't need to spend any extra time after the image is put on the desktop to configure the 2, 10, 20 or 50 desktop applications inside the image.
Image-Reduction Next Steps
Get out of the messy business of multiple images and configuring desktop application access after deployment or re-imaging. For more information on the various PolicyPak versions, click here.
You can also contact us directly at 1-800-883-8002 or send an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
