By definition, the Group Policy is a Windows feature that offers you a centralized way of

managing and configuring the Windows operating system, the programs and user settings from
the computers that are enrolled on a domain. Group Policies are obviously most useful if you are
a network administrator and you need to enforce certain rules or settings on the computers and/or
users found in the network that you manage. However, this situation is outside of the scope of
this tutorial.

Local Group Policy is a variant of Group Policy that also lets you control individual computers,
not only computers that are registered on a domain. That means that this tool can be very useful
to home users as well as to network administrators.

To put it into simple terms, you should think about Local Group Policy as a set of laws that
govern how Windows works on your computer.

Few examples:

 Allow users to access only some of the applications found on your computer.
 Block users from using removable devices (ex. USB memory sticks) on the computer.

 Block users’ access to Control Panel and to the Settings app.

 Hide specific elements from the Control Panel.
 Specify the wallpaper used on the Desktop and block users from changing it.
 Block users from enabling/disabling LAN connections or block them from changing the
properties of the computer’s LAN (Local Area Network) connections.
 Deny users to read and/or write data from CDs, DVD, removable drives etc.
 Disable all the keyboard shortcuts that start with the Windows key. For instance,
Windows + R (which opens the Run windows) and Windows + X (which opens the
power user menu) will stop working.

You can open the Local Group Policy Editor by using the command line or by using the
Microsoft Management Console (MMC).

To open the Local Group Policy Editor from the command line

 Click Start , type gpedit.msc in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER .

To open the Local Group Policy Editor as an MMC snap-in

1. Open MMC. (Click Start , click in the Start Search box, type mmc , and then press
ENTER .)
2. On the File menu, click Add/Remove Snap-in .
3. In the Add or Remove Snap-ins dialog box, click Group Policy Object Editor , and
then click Add .
4. In the Select Group Policy Object dialog box, click Browse .
 5. Click This computer to edit the Local Group Policy object, or click Users to edit
Administrator, Non-Administrator, or per-user Local Group Policy objects.
6. Click Finish .

Creating a File item

To create a new File preference item

1. Open the Group Policy Management Console . Right-click the Group Policy object
(GPO) that should contain the new preference item, and then click Edit .
2. In the console tree under Computer Configuration or User Configuration , expand the
Preferences folder, and then expand the Windows Settings folder.
3. Right-click the Files node, point to New , and select File .
4. In the New File Properties dialog box, select an Action for Group Policy to perform.
(For more information, see "Actions" in this topic.)
5. Enter file settings for Group Policy to configure or remove. (For more information, see
"File settings" in this topic.)
6. Click the Common tab, configure any options, and then type your comments in the
Description box. (For more information, see Configure Common Options.)
7. Click OK . The new preference item appears in the details pane.

Actions
This type of preference item provides a choice of four actions: Create , Replace , Update , and
Delete . The behavior of the preference item varies with the action selected and whether the file
already exists.

Creating a Mapped Drive item

To create a new Mapped Drive preference item

1. Open the Group Policy Management Console . Right-click the Group Policy object
(GPO) that should contain the new preference item, and then click Edit .
2. In the console tree under User Configuration , expand the Preferences folder, and then
expand the Windows Settings folder.
3. Right-click the Drive Maps node, point to New , and select Mapped Drive .
4. In the New Drive Properties dialog box, select an Action for Group Policy to perform.
(For more information, see "Actions" in this topic.)
5. Enter drive map settings for Group Policy to configure or remove. (For more information,
see "Drive map settings" in this topic.)
6. Click the Common tab, configure any options, and then type your comments in the
Description box. (For more information, see Configure Common Options.)
7. Click OK . The new preference item appears in the details pane.
Creating an Application item
To create a new application preference item

1. Open the Group Policy Management Console . Right-click the Group Policy object
(GPO) that should contain the new preference item, and then click Edit .
2. In the console tree under User Configuration , expand the Preferences folder, and then
expand the Windows Settings folder.
3. Right-click the Applications node, point to New , and select an application.
4. In the Properties dialog box, enter application settings for Group Policy to configure.
5. Click the Common tab, configure any options, and then type your comments in the
Description box. (For more information, see Configure Common Options.)
6. Click OK . The new preference item appears in the details pane.