help about the group policy

araishee

hi everybody, i need help about the group policy, i really can't understand what's the difference between the computer setting and the user setting . Can some one please tell me ?
Thanks for reading.

dynamik

Basically, user settings apply to users and computer settings apply to computers. Helpful huh?

For example, a computer setting will apply to any user who logs on to that machine while a user setting will only apply to the users it's assigned to. If I remove the run option from the start menu and apply that to the computer, it will not be available for anyone who logs on to that machine. However, if I assign it to, say, an OU that contains the sales employees, the option will only be unavailable for the sales employees.

Some settings can be defined for both users and computers while some can only be configured in one or the other. For example, password policies can only be configured for computers.

There are more complicated scenarios that involve things like loop-back processing, but they are far out of scope for the 270 (and even the 290.. that's more like 294 material).

araishee

Thanks alot for ur post it was really helpfull.

dynamik

Anytime

sprkymrk

dynamik wrote:

However, if I assign it to, say, an OU that contains the sales employees, the option will only be unavailable for the sales employees.

This is true as long as you assign it to the User Settings portion of the GPO. I have seen others (okay, by others I mean me....) assign a policy like Hide Start Menu to the COMPUTER SETTINGS portion of the GPO and apply that GPO to an OU that contained only USERS, and then wonder why it doesn't work.

So as dynamik stated first off, if you set a policy in the Computer Settings portion of a GPO it will apply to all computers in whatever OU/Domain/Site you assign it to. If there are no computers in that container, it applies to nothing. Ditto the User Settings.

Dynamik's answer was great, I just wanted to clarify that one point, as it can be a common mistake/oversite.

Mishra

"a computer setting will apply to any user who logs on to that machine while a user setting will only apply to the users it's assigned to"

Most computer settings are applied when the computer is first starting up. User settings are applied when a user logs in.


I think there are a few computer settings that may apply at login, and if not then can be applied using gpudate /force. But most computer settings REQUIRE a reboot so its best just to think Computer Settings = reboot, User Settings = relogging in.