Chapter 21. Group Policy

One of the advantages for organizations with Windows 2000 and the AD was the introduction of Group Policy, which finally offered a comprehensive and reliable method of performing configuration in a persistent manner on servers and computers within an organization. Prior to the Group Policy feature, system policies were limited in their abilities and application.

System policies were managed with the System Policy Editor. By default, it had policy options for the default user and default computer, with the capability to add additional policies for specific users, groups, or computers. These policies were basic at best; they worked by manipulating Registry key values on the client through values set in template files with the adm extension type. It was possible to create custom adm files that set Registry keys on the client to achieve functionality beyond those in the included adm files stored in the Winnt\inf folder. An example policy is shown in Figure 21-1.