How To Use the Group Policy Editor in Windows XP using MMC (Microsoft Management Console )

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Before attempting any change to Group policies remember that Group Policy Editor is a very powerful tool and improper use could damage you computer OS.
Microsoft Management Console (MMC) hosts administrative tools that you can use to administer networks, computers, services, and other system components.
Group Policy

The Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in that is used to edit Group Policy objects.For example You create a specific desktop configuration for a particular group of users and computers by using the Group Policy Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in.
Group Policy object is a collection of Group Policy settings.
Group Policy objects are essentially the documents created by the Group Policy snap-in, a Windows utility. Group Policy objects are stored at the domain level, and they affect users and computers contained in sites, domains, and organizational units.
In addition, each Windows computer has exactly one group of settings stored locally, called the local Group Policy object.
Group Policy object

You must be logged on to the computer using an account that has administrator privileges in order to use Group Policy Editor.


Let us see how we can set up a policy using the Group Policy Editor.
We will try to Removes the “Log Off “ item from the Start menu and prevents users from restoring it.
If you enable this setting, the Log Off item does not appear in the Start menu. This setting also removes the Display Logoff item from Start Menu Options. As a result, users cannot restore the Log Off item to the Start Menu.

• Start the Group Policy Editor
• To start the group policy editor, follow these steps.
• Click Start, and then click Run.
• In the Open box, type mmc, and then click OK.
• On the File menu, click Add/Remove Snap-in.
• Click Add.
• Under Available Stand-alone Snap-ins, click Group Policy, and then click Add.
• If you do not want to edit the Local Computer policy, click Browse to locate the group policy object that you want. Supply your user name and password if prompted, and then when you return to the Select Group Policy Object dialog box, click Finish.
• Click Close, and then in the Add/Remove Snap-in dialog box, click OK.The selected GPO is displayed in the Console Root

Group Policy Editor

• Click Start, and then click Run.
• In the Open box, type Gpedit.msc, and then click OK.
• Expand User Configuration (if it is not already expanded).
• Under User Configuration, expand Administrative Templates.
• Click Start Menu and Taskbar.
• In the right pane, double-click Remove Log Off from the start menu.
• Click Enabled, and then click Apply.
• Click Start. :Notice that the Log Off Computer button is no longer displayed.
• Select the Remove and disable the Log Off Computer button Properties dialog box.
• Click Not Configured, then click Apply, and then click OK.
• Click Start.:Notice that the Log Off Computer button is again displayed on the Start menu.
• Quit the Group Policy Editor snap-in.

The above example is the configuration of a simple policy.