Windows Server Feature Packs

As managing vice president, Rob Helm covers Microsoft collaboration and content management. His 25-plus years of experience analyzing Microsoft’s technology... more

Feature packs deliver Windows Server features on a separate schedule (“out-of-band”) from the server OS itself. Notable feature packs include the following:

Active Directory Application Mode (ADAM) allows an application to use a dedicated instance of Active Directory (AD) for its own identity data, without having to update the main Windows AD schema or store and replicate the data in the main Windows AD database. The latest version of ADAM shipped with Windows Server 2003 R2 and is no longer a separate feature pack.

Automated Deployment Services (ADS) provides new imaging tools and an infrastructure for deploying server images to bare hardware; it will be superseded by Windows Deployment Services when Windows Server Longhorn ships.

Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) is a tool that helps administrators understand how to use Active Directory and Group Policy to manage Windows clients. For example, administrators can use it to simulate a Group Policy change and see what effects it would have on users.

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