Quite often, many users working on computer terminals without administrator rights encounter the problem that some action is disabled by the administrator or simply prohibited. For such prohibitions, the Group Policy Editor is also used. What is it and how to work with it, we will see now.
What is a group policy editor ?
The editor itself is a fairly complex and powerful tool that allows you to fine-tune the system, enable or disable its individual components, set permissions and restrictions for users to use individual Windows components, install or run applications, etc.
It should be borne in mind that there are two types of such a tool: the local group policy editor (for this terminal) and the toolkit for group policies of the directory service (Active Directory is used by sites, domains, network terminals, etc.).
In addition, you must know that such functions are provided in the same Windows 7 or 8 systems exclusively in versions of Ultimate, Professional, and Enterprise. In home versions like Home or Starter, this element is not installed initially, so there’s nothing to try to look for. A little later we will look at how to enable the Group Policy Editor in Windows home assemblies. In the meantime, let's look at the main functions of this tool.
Launch Editor
To begin, consider the question of how to enter the local group policy editor. The easiest way is to use the command line or the Run menu (Win + R). Group Policy Editor (Windows 8 or 7) is invoked by the gpedit.msc command.
Now let's look at the basic settings and see what they are for.
Basic parameters and settings
In the left window of the editor, you can immediately see two main sections. The first concerns the computer system as a whole. Here you can edit all the parameters that apply to the system, regardless of which user is currently working on the terminal. In the second section there are settings, so to speak, tied to each specific user.
In this case (of course, if you log in as an administrator), you can set prohibitions and permissions for other users to perform certain actions.
So, for example, you need to disable, say, editing the registry so that an inexperienced user, God forbid, get in there and delete an important key or record that may affect the performance of the entire “OS”. To do this, use the section of administrative templates for user configuration, where the corresponding item for prohibiting access to registry editing tools is selected. When you enter the sub-menu, a checkmark is simply put in front of the “Enabled” parameter.
Now the user, when entering the regedit command, will receive a message stating that editing the registry is prohibited by the administrator. However, this applies to any user actions and applicable restrictions or permissions.
The computer configuration settings also look interesting. So, for example, you can easily change, omit the action that is performed when you press the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Alt + Del, or something else. In other words, using the editor options, you can configure the system, as they say, for yourself. There are quite a lot of powerful tools for this.
Install and enable Group Policy Editor in versions of Windows Home (7, 8)
Now a few words about how you can use the Group Policy Editor in versions of Windows Home and Starter. To do this, you just need to download the installation distribution kit from the Internet and install this component. Installation does not cause problems, as it is a standard process. Upon completion, a reboot of the computer system will be required. But that is not all.
Where is the local group policy editor
Here we come to the question of the location of the file responsible for launching the editor. In the standard version for systems with 32-bit architecture, the startup file is located in the System32 system folder in the Windows root directory.
In 64-bit versions of the same “seven” or “eight”, after installing the file using the above utility, its location will be changed to the SysWOW64 folder (this is where all the command files called through the Run menu are located).
So, if immediately after installing and rebooting the system enter the command to call the editor, it may not work. The system will simply display a message that the gpedit.msc file was not found. Nothing wrong. The way out of this situation is quite simple. You just need to copy the desired file to the System32 folder, that's all.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it remains to add that the Group Policy Editor is a powerful and serious tool. Therefore, at least without any initial knowledge, it is not recommended to change the parameters located there, or else, what good, the whole system will “fly out”. Well, an experienced user, using a conscientiously system registry and group policy settings, can go a long way, especially since the editor and the registry are interconnected up to the complete duplication of some settings and parameters.