Microsoft® Windows® XP Networking and Security Inside Out: Also Covers Windows 2000

Chapter 22. Managing Security Through Group Policy and Security Templates

Exploring Security-Related Policies 730

Using the Group Policy Snap-In 754

Using Security Templates 761

Analyzing System Security 771

Group Policy is a feature of Microsoft Windows XP Professional and Windows 2000 that lets an administrator configure a computer and, optionally, prevent users from changing that configuration. Administrators can use Group Policy to set standard desktop configurations; restrict what settings users are allowed to change; specify scripts to run at startup, shutdown, logon, and logoff; redirect users' special folders (such as My Documents) to network drives; and more. In addition—and more pertinent to the topic of this book—administrators can use ...