Windows Vista Group Policies

Although Microsoft Surface does not support group policies, the underlying Windows Vista operating system does.

It is important to understand that certain Microsoft Surface processes change local group policies in the Windows Vista Group Policy object. You must not directly change any of the following group policies:

Under User Configuration/Administrative Templates/System, do not change the Custom User Interface setting.
Under User Configuration/Administrative Templates/System/Ctrl+Alt+Del Options, do not change any of the settings for Remove Task Manager or Remove Change Password.

Important
If you want to change the behavior of Remove Task Manager, we recommend that you modify the appropriate registry key and not the policy.
Under User Configuration/Administrative Templates/Windows Components/Windows Sidebar, do not change the Turn off Windows Sidebar setting.
Under User Configuration/Administrative Templates/Control Panel/Display, do not change the Screen Saver setting.
Under Computer Configuration/Administrative Templates/Network/Network Connections/Windows Firewall, do not change the Windows Firewall: Prohibit notifications setting for the Domain Profile node or the Standard Profile node.

Important
If you want to change the behavior of Windows Firewall notifications, we recommend that you modify the appropriate registry key and not the policy.

Important
If you want to change the behavior of Remove Task Manager, we recommend that you modify the appropriate registry key and not the policy.

Important
If you want to change the behavior of Windows Firewall notifications, we recommend that you modify the appropriate registry key and not the policy.

Under Users/Admin Templates/Windows Components/Application Compatibility/Turn off Program Compatibility Assistant, do not change the settings for the Program Compatibility Assistant.

Important
If you want to change the behavior of Program Compatibility Assistant, you can modify the Microsoft Surface registry key <mode profile>/UISuppression/ProgramCompatibilityAssistant. For more information, see Registry Keys.

Under Computer Configuration/Administrative Templates/System/Troubleshooting & diagnostics, do not change the Diagnostics: Configure scenario execution level setting.

Important
If you want to change the behavior of the Windows Diagnostics Resolver user interface, you can modify the Microsoft Surface registry key <mode profile>/UISuppression/WindowsDiagnosticsResolverUI. For more information, see Registry Keys.