Group Policy management for IT Pros

This topic provides you with information about the common administration and troubleshooting tasks and tools associated with Group Policy. It also provides links to content that will help you manage Group Policy in your network.

Common tasks

These links will take you to additional information on the Microsoft Web site.

Useful tools

This section describes the Microsoft Web site downloads and tools associated with this version of Windows that help you configure and manage Group Policy.

Group Policy Management Console

The Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) snap-in provides a single user interface through which to manage Group Policy across an enterprise. GPMC consists of a Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in and a set of scriptable interfaces for managing Group Policy.

You can find the GPMC snap-in in the following location: %windir%\System32\gpedit.msc

Important:

It may be necessary to run MMC with elevated privileges even if your account is in the Computer Administrators group.

To open MMC with elevated privileges, click Start, click All Programs, click Accessories, right-click Command Prompt and then point to Run as administrator. If Windows displays a security message asking your permission to run this program, click Allow. In the command prompt that opens, type mmc.exe to start MMC. In the console tree of MMC, click File, click Add/Remove Snap-in, and then select Group Policy Object Editor and Group Policy Management and click Add.

Group Policy Object Editor

Group Policy Object Editor is an MMC snap-in that you can use to edit Group Policy objects (GPOs). After GPMC is installed, you can open Group Policy Object Editor from GPMC.

You can find this MMC snap-in in the following location: %windir%\System32\gpedit.msc

To open the local Group Policy Object Editor, click Start, click Run, and then type gpedit.msc.

Downloads

For Group Policy downloads, go to the following resources on the Microsoft Web site:

Deployment

For information about deploying Group Policy, go to the following resources on the Microsoft Web site.

Managing ADMX Files Step-by-Step Guide

Operations

For operational information about Group Policy, go to the following procedures on the Microsoft Web site:

Technical reference

For more information about Group Policy, go to the following technical references on the Microsoft Web site:

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Applies to these editions of Windows Vista:

See Also