# Windows Server 2003 Native Mode & Group Policy



## restlund (Dec 30, 2004)

I have been trying to find articles on the web that talk about 2003 Native Mode or Windows Server 2003 mode as they are calling it now. My question is about group policy. If we switch to native mode for 2003 server, will we still be able to have windows 2000 machines on the network, and will group policy still work on those 2000 machines? I have not been able to find articles that actually spell out that you can or cannot use group policy to windows 2000 machines if you are operating in a 2003 native mode environment.

Please let me know if you have any experience or knowledge on this subject. Thanks!


----------



## touch0ph (Jan 4, 2005)

Windows 2003 Native refers to you domain controllers. Windows 2003 Native is used if all you your domain controllers are Windows 2003 servers. The other domain functional levels accommodate networks that have multiple domain controllers ie. NT 4.0, Windows 2000 and Windows 2003. So if you change the domain functional level to Windows 2003 native, just make sure all your DC's are Windows 2003 servers.

As for you clients, you will still be able to have Windows 2000 machines join your domain and this will not affect group policy. Actually, group policy contains policies for Windows 2000 and Windows XP and are applied appopriatley based on the client operating system.

Did this help?


----------



## 10forcash (Dec 26, 2004)

As touch0ph said, 'Native' mode refers to DC's only, group policy is now 'intelligent' enough to apply to W2k & XP clients as required, in other words, a GPO created in Server 2003 will apply to both W2k and XP clients as required, if there is a policy setting for a function in XP that is not available in W2K, the GPO will bypass this and carry on processing (unlike W2k server and NT clients....)
Cheers,
10forcash


----------



## ICFire (Oct 19, 2004)

I highly recommend you pick up this book.

Group Policy, Profiles, and IntelliMirror for Windows 2003, Windows XP and Windows 2000 - by Moskowitz

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...f=sr_1_1/002-0320792-3340832?v=glance&s=books


----------

