Group Policy Management Overview

  • Article

Applies To: Windows Server 2008 R2

Group Policy Management includes the Group Policy Management Console (GPMC), the Microsoft Management Console that allows you to manage Group Policy cost effectively for your enterprise.

The Group Policy Management Console simplifies the management of domain-based Group Policy by providing a single experience for managing, editing, and reporting the core aspects of Group Policy. You can think of the GPMC as a one-stop resource for managing your Group Policy needs.

The Group Policy Management Console includes:

  • A user interface that improves the ease of use of Group Policy.

  • Backup and restore of Group Policy objects (GPOs).

  • Import/export and copy/paste of GPOs and Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) filters.

  • Simplified management of Group Policy–related security.

  • HTML reporting for GPO settings and Resultant Set of Policy (RSoP) data.

  • The ability to include text-based comments in Group Policy objects and registry-based policy settings.

  • Filtered views of registry-based policy settings based on keywords within the title, Help text, or comment of policy settings.

  • Starter Group Policy objects: portable collections of registry-based policy settings, which provide starting points for GPOs.

  • Preferences: twenty-one additional Group Policy extensions that allow you to manage drive mappings, registry settings, local users and groups, services, files, folders, and more without the need to learn a scripting language.