Disable Group Policy Windows 7
How to Disable Firewall Settings Controlled by a Group Policy by Ruri Ranbe Via group policy, computers running Windows 8 Pro or Windows 8 Enterprise can control the behavior of applications and services and restrict what actions users can take on the PC.
The reason why we might want to to control panel on a Windows computer or server is to minimize the risk of exposing the computer settings to anyone. As we all know, in control panel we can find almost every configuration and settings on our computer; such as User Accounts, System and Security, Programs and Features, etc. These are all settings that we don’t want somebody else to mess with. For that purpose, Windows gives a way to restrict control panel access. On a managed domain, administrators usually disable control panel access using on Windows.
How to Disable Control Panel Access using Group Policy on WindowsIn this article we are going to demonstrate the way to disable control panel access using Group Policy on Windows. The steps by step below are performed on a Windows Server 2012 R2 as the Domain Controller and Windows 7 Ultimate as the targeted client computer where we want to disable its control panel.
Disable Group Policy Windows 7 Regedit
It is also assumed that the client computer has been joined to the domain.A user named “Arranda Saputra” is logged on to the client PC and is the subject for the policy enforcement. In the domain, this user is located under OU named “MustBeGeek” and this is where we will link the policy.Step by step:1. Creating the Group Policy ObjectOn the Group Policy Management console, expand the forest and domain as usual, right click on Group Policy Objects and select “ New”Give name for the policy object, in this example we name it “ Block Control Panel”2. Editing the policy objectOnce the policy object has been created, it will appear on the policy object list. Right click that policy and select “ Edit”On the policy editor window, the setting that we’re looking for is under User Configuration Adminsitrative Templates Control Panel, find one setting named “ Prohibit access to Control Panel and PC settings”Double click the setting and then configure it as shown in the screenshot below.Click OK to save the setting and close the editor window.3.Applying the policy objectFind the target OU, in this example the target OU is “MustBeGeek”, right click on it and select “ Link an Existing GPO”Select the “Block Control Panel” GPO and click OK.
Verify that it is now appear under the “MustBeGeek” OU.4. Check the result on the client machineAs soon as the policy applied, this is what will happen on the client machine when trying to open control panel.The same prompt window will also appear when trying to modify a setting directly via the object icon, for example when trying to modify network setting by choosing “Open Network and Sharing Center” via LAN icon at the taskbar will also resulting the above prompt.PS: Policy will be applied naturally but remember we can always force the policy to be applied right away by issuing command gpupdate /force on command prompt. ConclusionDisabling control panel access means totally restrict the user from changing any computer settings, even the smallest one. The only way to open control panel or any of its configuration items is by logging in using another user account that is not impacted by the policy. Remember that you can always check policy being applied to a user account by using command gpresult /r on CMD.The best practice is not to apply this GPO to Administrator or Domain Admin accounts.
However, if you are sure that other users are not required to do anything on the control panel, then you can always disable control panel access using Group Policy on Windows.
Edit Group Policy Windows 7
Disabling-Enabling USB Mass Storage Device Disabling-Enabling USB Mass Storage DeviceYou can disable/enable any USB-compatible external mass storage devices in order to ensure confidentiality or for other reasons.Group Policy Editor is a part of Windows operating system that allows you to control your machine. One of its feature is the ability to turn ON and OFF access to USB storage.Group Policy Editor is a Microsoft Management Console snap-in that provides a single user interface through which all the Computer Configuration and User Configuration settings of Local Group Policy objects can be managed. Computer ConfigurationAdministrators can use Computer Configuration to set policies that are applied to computer, regardless of who logs on to the computers. Computer Configuration typically contains sub-items for software settings, Windows settings, and administrative templates.
Temporarily Disable Group Policy
User ConfigurationAdministrators can use User Configuration to set policies that apply to users, regardless of which computer they log on to.