How to use Group Policy to deploy Windows XP in a Windows Server 2003-based network

This step-by-step article describes how to use Group Policy to deploy Windows XP Professional in a Windows Server 2003-based network. You can use Group Policy to make a Windows XP Professional upgrade available to the workstations in your network.

Note: To perform the procedures that this article describes, you must be a member of the Administrators group on a computer that is running Windows Server 2003.

How to Create a Network Share

Create a folder to hold the Windows Installer package (Winnt32.msi) on a network server, give the folder the correct permissions to permit the users and the computers to read and run the files, and then copy the I386 folder from the Windows XP Professional CD-ROM to this folder.

How to Create a Group Policy Object (GPO)

You can create a GPO for a domain, an organizational unit, or a site. Microsoft recommends that you assign a GPO to an organizational unit that contains the users whose workstations you want to upgrade. To create a GPO:

1. Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Active Directory Users and Computers.
2. Right-click the container that you want to link the GPO to, and then click Properties.
3. Click the Group Policy tab, click New, and then type a name for the new GPO in the New Group Policy Object box.
4. Click the GPO that you created in step 3, and then click Edit.
5. Expand User Configuration, and then expand Software Settings.
6. Right-click Software installation, point to New, and then click Package.
7. In the Look in box, locate the share that contains the I386 folder. Make sure that the path that you enter is an accessible Universal Naming Convention (UNC) path and not a file system path.
8. Open the share that contains the Windows Installer package, click Winnt32.msi, and then click Open.
9. Click Publish, and then click OK.

Note: Your changes to the GPO are not applied immediately to the target computers. Instead, they are applied according to the currently valid Group Policy refresh interval. In this scenario, when you publish the program to the users, it is available the next time the affected users log on.

For more information, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: