Editing Group Policy (section)

{{Short description|Feature of the Microsoft Windows NT family of operating systems}}
{{Update|1=Windows 10 issues|date=September 2018}}
[[File:Local Security Policy.png|right|thumb|Local Security Policy editor in [[Windows 11]]]]
'''Group Policy''' is a feature of the Microsoft [[Windows NT]] family of [[operating system]]s (including Windows 8.1, Windows 10, Windows 11) that controls the working environment of user accounts and computer accounts. Group Policy provides centralized management and configuration of operating systems, applications, and users' settings in an [[Active Directory]] environment. A set of Group Policy configurations is called a '''Group Policy Object''' ('''GPO'''). A version of Group Policy called '''Local Group Policy''' (LGPO or LocalGPO) allows Group Policy Object management without Active Directory on standalone computers.<ref name="LGPO" /><ref name="LGPO2">{{cite web |url=http://blogs.technet.com/b/secguide/archive/2011/07/05/scm-v2-beta-localgpo-rocks.aspx |title=SCM v2 Beta: LocalGPO Rocks! |publisher=Microsoft | first=Jeff |last=Sigman |access-date=2018-11-24|archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20160301042344if_/http://blogs.technet.com/b/secguide/archive/2011/07/05/scm-v2-beta-localgpo-rocks.aspx|archive-date=2016-03-01|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Active Directory servers disseminate group policies by listing them in their [[LDAP]] directory under objects of class <code>groupPolicyContainer</code>. These refer to fileserver paths (attribute <code>gPCFileSysPath</code>) that store the actual group policy objects, typically in an [[Server Message Block|SMB]] share \\<var>domain.com</var>\[[File Replication Service|SYSVOL]] shared by the Active Directory server. If a group policy has registry settings, the associated file share will have a file <code>registry.pol</code> with the registry settings that the client needs to apply.<ref name=GPDO>{{cite web |url=https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/openspecs/windows_protocols/ms-gpod/6e634939-2ccf-4412-b75f-0035dc05ea67 |title=[MS-GPOD]: Group Policy Protocols Overview |at=Section [https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/openspecs/windows_protocols/ms-gpod/351cf7ff-d4d8-4e80-b5dc-6a51a328c6c4 1.1.5 Group Policy Data Storage]|publisher=Microsoft |access-date=2020-02-22}}</ref>

The Policy Editor (<code>gpedit.msc</code>) is not provided on Home (& Starter) editions of Windows.