Group Policy

Group Policy provides centralized management of Windows settings for users and computers in Active Directory.

What is Group Policy?

Group Policy is a feature of Microsoft Windows that provides centralized management and configuration of operating systems, applications, and users' settings in an Active Directory environment.

Group Policy concepts

GPOs (Group Policy Objects), Linking, Inheritance, Filtering, Preferences vs Policies.

Common misconceptions

"GPO applies immediately" — Background refresh cycles
"More GPOs are better" — Can slow login/startup
"GPOs are legacy" — Still primary Windows management tool