Windows Server 2008 Manageability Feature: Group Policy Preferences
Group Policy Preference is a new feature to the Windows Server 2008 that enables you to configure other computer or user preferences that are not covered with Group Policy Settings. An example of which is the mapping network drives, which traditionally we use a logon script that is being executed by a Group Policy Settings. Group Policy Preference can also be described as initial configurations and can be re-configured by the end user , while the Group Policy Settings on the other hand are strictly enforced to the target object (a user / machine).
Here is a post on a very quick overview plus a sample on how to configure a Mapped Network Drive which most of the IT admins will use a combination of GPO and a batch script.
