Enterprise Computing
Group Policy
Group Policy Enhancements in Windows 7
- Group Policy Service: Windows 7 processes group policies with a new Group Policy service. Some of the benefits include:
- Group Policy settings can be applied without any reboots
- Performance is increased and resource usage is reduced for Group Policy processing
- Group policy events are logged to the System log instead of the Application log
- Information about Group Policy applications is logged to a Group Policy Operational log
- Group Policy Preferences introduce a way to configure a number of Windows 7 features that may have required scripting in the past. In some cases, you may be able to use Group Policy Preferences instead of login scripts. Some of the things you can configure with Group Policy Preferences include:
- ODBC data sources
- Enable and disable devices
- Printers
- Drive mappings
- Scheduled tasks
- Service configuration
- Internet Explorer settings
- VPN and dialup connections
- Registry keys
- Start Menu configuration
- Multiple Local Policies: Windows 7 allows you to have multiple local GPOs and consequently have distinct settings for different users, even in a workgroup environment.