I've been in study mode a lot lately, as I've been preparing for an upcoming class I'll be going to. In the process, I've had to loop around and pick up several MCP exams I'd not gotten. Today, I'm studying Active Directory.
I knew that you could push applications out to computers via GPO, and I knew there were two different ways of doing it: publishing and assigning. What I could never keep straight, until now, was what the differences were. One choice offers the program in Add/Remove Programs and the user must go in and click Install; the other adds it to the Start Menu (and performs the installation the first time the user starts the application). As an added wrinkle, one option is available to both user policies and computer policies, while the other is available only to user policies.
Well, I finally came up with a mnemonic to help me keep 'em straight:
PUblishing Permits the User to install. That is, you can only publish to User policies, and it offers the choice to the user to install it (via Add/Remove Programs).
ASsignment Automatically Sets up the program. That is, you can assign a program and know it will be added to the Start menu, and (by elimination) can be done both to a user and to a computer.
Hope this helps!