It is an interface through which settings of a single group policy object can be managed. A group policy is a set of rules that can be applied to users and/or PCs that decide things like design, software settings, and desktop layout among many other settings.

Much time group policy is applied enterprise wide on a domain level to domain users and PCs. That way you do not have to change settings per user. You can make organizational units and include users and PCs to particular groups. Then you can apply a group policy to that full group. Windows 2000, XP Professional and higher end Vista operating systems allow you change your group policy settings for particular PC. XP Home and Vista Home Editions do not have this aspect built in.

Simple method to obtain Group Policy Object Editor is to tick on Start, Run and type in gpedit.msc and click Ok. This shows Group Policy Object Editor MMC console. Here we used console that appears with Vista. The Versions in Windows 2000 and XP are same. There are two major categories, Computer Configuration and User Configuration.

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Computer Configuration is where you make alters on a PC level and User Configuration is where you make alters on a user level. In each category are sub categories like Software Settings, Windows Settings and Administrative Templates. The sub categories will have many similar items but are not identical.

Software Settings

Here is where you would allocate or distribute software packages to users and PCs. This would be utilized in a domain environment where you have many users and PCs. When you allocate software, that software will be installed on network client. When you publish software, software is available to users by Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel.

Windows Settings

Here you can modify many logon and safety settings. E.g. if you want to modify password policy or account lockout policy, which locks PC after so many failed login tries, you would do that here. You can also modify and setup audit policies for many things like account login and object access. If you want to setup login or logoff scripts for items like mapped drives etc then you would do that under the Scripts section. You can also change the behavior of Internet Explorer.

Administrative Templates

This provides many choices to modify many things. It contains areas like setting Control Panel options, desktop settings, Network connections, shared folder administration, start menu configuration, system variables, and much more.

You can use hours going through all settings and do many modifications. Be careful and check your changes prior to implementing them. If you do a modification and forget what you did then it may be hard to make out to modify it back.