Benefits of Group Policy

Group Policy gives organizations the ability to manage their clients and servers effortlessly. Following are four of its most powerful benefits.

I. Configuration

With a group policy management, you can configure most system settings, including settings for built-in applications like Windows Media and Internet Explorer. And, you can do it for multiple computers at one time.

For example, if the finance department needs one type of rights and the creative department another type, all you have to do is specify those settings in your Group Policy object and add it to the appropriate organizational unit.

II. Saves on Power

Because Group Policy is pre-installed and enforces configurations, it helps to save power by utilizing smart power settings.

Whether you use a desktop or laptop, it can be used to shut power on and off at user will. This can significantly reduce power consumption during off-peak hours for every business. This allows organizations to save on energy bills, and it's environmentally friendly as well.

Workday Usage Power-Saving Tip: Encourage employees to use the "Sleep" or "Hibernating" mode when they step away from their desks for longer than a few minutes. This not only saves personal system resources, but the organization's overall resources as well.

III. Increased Worker Productivity

Group Policy can give individual users more control over their machines (with administrator privileges).

This can increase worker productivity because it allows employees to set up their workstations - eg, their browser, Messenger and Media Players -- in a manner that works for them. Even small changes can increase productivity by 10, 15 or 25%.

IV. Increased Security

It's the small things like enforced password resetting that Group Policy allows that can really lead to increased system security. This is particularly true for large organizations.

It's human nature to resist change. This may be why many system users won't change their passwords - unless they are hit with a security breach, or until they're forced to. By making set passwords expire after a certain amount of time, you force users to change them at predetermined intervals. You can also enforce which kinds of passwords will be accepted (eg, certain number of characters, mix of characters and numbers, caps/no caps, etc.).

In conclusion, perhaps the grandest benefit of Group Policy is an aggregation of all of these benefits. For, what they add up to is giving you the ability to apply settings that mirror your organization's structure.

About the Author:

Sean Pellegrino is a self-confessed and self-taught computer geek. His day job involves administering servers and websites while helping friends, and sometimes strangers, in troubleshooting computer issues.