Broadband Tech > Security > Security > xp home doesn't have group policy does it????

reply to dannyboy 950

Re: xp home doesn't have group policy does it????

No Group Policies are applied in XP Home.
Nor on any non-Domain Active Directory joined workstation, XP Home or Pro, or Vista.

For special controls -- notably on the GUI, Explorer, and Control Panel applets -- the NT family has depended on registry entries to indicate whether a feature is enabled or not.

For example, your Wallpaper choices are registry "tattoos". While you could in a manged setting make everyone's Wallpaper identical through Group Policy, the fact the you can configure this on a stand-alone Workstation does not make it a Group Policy application.

The use of registry "tattoos", deprecated under NT6 and onwards, is what causes confusion. In some cases the active Group Policy object uses the same internal feature as would a user setting made through the GUI to achieve certain ends. However, in a setting with Group Policy active, you changes if allowed would not persist. They would be reset at every logon by Group Policy.

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MS-MVP 2004 - -2008, ASAP Member
Users Helping Users

Event Type: Success Audit
Event Source: Security
Event Category: Policy Change
Event ID: 848
Date: 5/31/2008
Time: 5:25:43 PM
User: NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM
Computer: DANNY
Description:
The following policy was active when the Windows Firewall started.

Group Policy applied: Yes
Profile used: Standard
Interface: All interfaces
Operational mode: Off
Services:
File and Printer Sharing: Disabled
Remote Desktop: Disabled
UPnP Framework: Disabled
Allow remote administration: Disabled
Allow unicast responses to multicast/broadcast traffic: Disabled
Security Logging:
Log dropped packets: Enabled
Log successful connections Enabled
ICMP:
Allow incoming echo request: Enabled
Allow incoming timestamp request: Disabled
Allow incoming mask request: Disabled
Allow incoming router request: Disabled
Allow outgoing destination unreachable: Disabled
Allow outgoing source quench: Disabled
Allow outgoing parameter problem: Disabled
Allow outgoing time exceeded: Disabled
Allow redirect: Disabled
Allow outgoing packet too big: Disabled

For more information, see Help and Support Center at »go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

Again, there are Group Policy objects that can be, and are, managed outside of Group Policy.

Beginning with SP2, the firewall exceptions became a managed object. This however does not mean that you have group policy. You cannot have Group Policy if you are using a non-Active Directory joined workstation; and it is completely unsupported under XP Home in any case.

Do not let the overlap between how policy objects are internally implemented, and managed, and Group Policy as a formal feature of the OS. They are not the same thing.

For example, using the Group Policy Editor (GPEDIT) in XP Pro is a big convenience. However, that is not implementing Group Policy. I can understand the confusion. Certainly the internals of the process are the same anytime one makes a registry tattoo that effects all user accounts on a computer. That is the internals of how Group Policy works as well. But these internal considerations do not add up to Group Policy as being active under XP Home.

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MS-MVP 2004 - -2008, ASAP Member
Users Helping Users

Ahhhh thank you very much for the explanation. Please to forgive my confusion. Will not worry about this anymore.