About the Group Policy Editor- How it works

About the Group Policy Editor- How it works
Although the Group Policy Editor console (gpedit.msc) is mostly used by administrators of networks and domains, it also has uses for a stand-alone home computer. One application is to allow convenient and easy editing of the Registry so that a variety of tweaks or changes to the system can be made. These settings are known as policies and are stored in a special hidden folder %SystemRoot%\System32\GroupPolicy\ (For most home systems the environment variable %SystemRoot% is C:\Windows.) Policies that apply to the machine are stored in a sub-folder "Machine" and policies that apply to a user are stored in a sub-folder "User". In each case the settings are in a file named "Registry.pol". Thus the settings for the machine are in %SystemRoot%\System32\GroupPolicy\Machine\Registry.pol and in similar fashion user settings are in User\Registry.pol. Policies are used to write to a special key of the Registry and override any settings elsewhere in the Registry. Since only the administrator account can access the policy settings, limited account users can be prevented from making unwanted system changes.
Another useful application of the Group Policy Editor (GPE) is to provide for the automatic running of scripts or programs whenever the computer is started up or shut down or when a user logs on or off. This may be the application of most practical use to a typical home PC user.