Group Policy for Windows XP Professional
This Article Does Not Apply to XP Home Edition

At one time Group Policy was the exclusive territory of those that deal with servers and Active Directory, but with the arrival of XP Professional more users are discovering Group Policy can be useful in managing computers on a small work or home network. Even if you have a single, stand alone computer with multiple users, Group Policy can be put to good use.

In a server environment administrators use Group Policy to configure computers that are members of domains, sites, and organizational units, affording them the flexibility of controlling hundreds of different aspects from one location. On a smaller scale, which is what this article will deal with, the local Group Policy object on an XP computer can be used to manage many changes that are implemented in the registry (registry based policy) as well as implement policies that control scripting functions and security options.

There is one huge difference between working with Group Policy in a domain environment and using it in a workgroup environment. The workgroup environment requires that policies be implemented on each individual computer, where the domain environment allows policies to be implemented across entire groups of computers and users with one action. Even so, Group Policy may be something you find of value.

Next: Local Group Policy Object

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