What Is the Windows 10 Group Policy Editor?

Let us take you on a guided tour

Perhaps you’ve heard the IT person at work talk about GPOs or user policies. Or, maybe, you would like to know how to have better control over your computer. In any case, theWindows 10Group Policy Editor is the tool to use. With it, you can work with Group Policy Objects (GPO) to customize your computer’s functions and the user experience.

In a network environment, the Group Policy Editor is used to configure everything from what programs are allowed to run to desktop customization. It does this in partnership with theActive Directory. For the average Windows 10 user who doesn’t have Active Directory, we can still use Local Group Policy Objects (LGPOs) to configure our computers.

Where Do I Find the Windows 10 Group Policy Editor?

If you haveWindows 10 Homeedition, you don’t have the Group Policy Editor. It’s only included with Windows 10 Pro and Windows 10 Enterprise.

The actual program name is gpedit.msc and it’s generally located atC:WindowsSystem32gpedit.mscor%windir%System32gpedit.msc.

But you don’t have to openFile Explorer to findit every time you want to use it. There are several ways to access the Group Policy Editor.

A Guided Tour Of The Windows 10 Group Policy Editor

Once you have the Group Policy Editor opened, you’ll notice two main categories on the left side of the window. There areComputer ConfigurationandUser Configuration.

The policies in Computer Configuration will apply to the entire computer and affect the functioning of the computer and the operating system in general. These settings do not change depending on who is logged in to the computer.

The policies in User Configuration apply to the users. The User Configuration policies are ideal for customizing the user’s desktop experience. If you are only changing the local group policy objects (LGPO), it will apply to all users on that computer.

If you are taking care of servers and applying the group policy in your Active Directory, the settings may apply to all or some users. It all depends on what level the policies are applied.

As you drill down into the different sections, you’ll see different areas for different applications or services. Make special note of what’s under the Administrative Templates sections in both Computer and User Configuration.

Administrative Templates can be added for many different apps you may install. For example, there is a large set of Administrative Templates forMicrosoft Officethat can be added to the Group Policy Editor. Even non-Microsoft companies, like Google, FoxIt PDF reader, andLogMeIn remote desktop accessprovide Administrative Templates for you to use. It’s a bit of a process to download and install them, but it’s not that hard.

There are far too many policies for us to go through them all and describe what they can do.

If you’d like to see all the Administrative Template policies available under either Computer or User Configurations, navigate toAdministrative Templates > All Settingsand select it. In the right-hand pane, you’ll see a long list of possible settings. In the image below, there are 2500 settings. There may be more on your computer or server.

When this was written, there were over 4200 policies native to Windows. That’s not including the different Administrative Templates one can add.

If you’re interested in going further into all the Microsoft policies, you can downloadMicrosoft’s Group Policy Settings Reference for Windows and Windows Server.

What Can I Do With the Windows 10 Group Policy Editor?

Think of the Group Policy Editor as yoursafe way to work in Windows Registry. Group Policy Editor won’t allow you to change everything you could in the Windows Registry, but it does allow you to changealmosteverything you’d want to change in Windows Registry.

Security policies are a great place to start. Let’s go through setting a policy to disable theWindows Command Prompt.

With the Group Policy Editor open:

While you’re in this area, check out other settings likePrevent access to registry editing toolsandRun only specified Windows applications. These aregood security settingsto work with as well.

There are so many things you could do, and we have articles for you about many of them. We can show youthe best way to disable Cortana, how toenable biometrics so Hello Fingerprint works, and how toset granular password policies for users. Get in there, take a look around and you’ll be pleasantly surprised how much you can control and customize your computer using the Windows 10 group policy editor

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