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CHAPTER 3
■
MANAGING THE WINDOWS DESKTOP
It’s our policy to say no
Group policies are used by
Windows-centric environments to
define and control just about every
aspect of the operating system and
related software. The Group Policy
Editor (GPE) is the tool used to
define and apply policies to com-
puters and users and is especially
helpful in locking down unneeded
services or restricting the damage
that end users can accidentally do.
These settings override those cre-
ated by users, which makes it a pow-
erful tool to help keep a computer
stable and running. To read more
about the GPE and user settings, see Chapter 4; to find out how to create
and apply security profiles, see Chapter 6.
Although the GPE is most often used in larger businesses, you can still
use it to configure settings related to the Start menu, rather than manually
adjusting the settings. Launch the GPE by clicking Start and then Run,
typing gpedit.msc, and then clicking OK. Browse to User Configuration\
Administrative Templates\Start Menu and Taskbar (see Figure 3.18).
The far right pane lists a number of settings that can be applied to all
users that log onto the computer, including the removal of various Start
menu items, locking the taskbar, and clearing out any “tracking” items such
as Recent Documents. When you have the Extended View tab selected,
you can click an item and see an explanation of what the item does and
the operating system requirements, if any. To change one of these set-
tings, double-click the item. Select the appropriate radio button and then
click OK.
Figure 3.17. The Classic menu lets you alphabeti-
cally sort your menu with only a single button click.
Hack
The GPE isn’t available in Windows XP Home Edition, because it creates policy files
that apply registry keys at startup, rather than edit the registry directly. You can still
edit the appropriate registry values in XP Home Edition, but it would be simpler (and
less error-prone) to purchase XP Pro.
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