Group Policy is a feature of Microsoft Windows Active Directory. It offers a hierarchical infrastructure that allows a network administrator in charge of Microsoft’s Active Directory to implement specific configurations for users and computers. Group Policy is primarily a security tool and can be used to apply security settings to users and computers.

Group Policy, in part, controls what users can and cannot do on a computer system:

Group Policy examples:

• Enforce a password complexity policy
• Prevent unidentified users from connecting to a network share
• Block access to Windows Task Manager
• Restrict access to specific folders etc.

The Benefits of Group Policy

Ease of Management

Managing a network is so much easier if you connect all users through Group Policy. You can make everyone’s machine aesthetically uniform, i.e. same wallpapers, same screen savers, same log-on messages, etc.

Cost and Time

With Group Policy, we can install/update/upgrade software from a single location, and service every single machine simultaneously. If your network is 500+ machines or 10 machines, a system upgrade is no longer a nightmare. Not only that, we can schedule the updates/installs to occur outside of business hours, that way no one is interrupted while they’re working! This prevents downtime and lost productivity time.