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Group Policy Preferences
Group Policy Preferences extend the reach of what Group Policy can manage and how settings are
applied. With Group Policy Preferences, system administrators can manage Windows components that
are not Group Policy-aware, such as mapped network drives and desktop shortcuts. Windows 7 contains
new Group Policy Preferences for exible power management and more advanced task scheduling. You
can also use Group Policy Preferences to deploy registry settings for managing applications. System
administrators can even create custom Group Policy Preferences extensions.
Unlike traditional Group Policy settings, Group Policy Preferences are not enforced. Rather, they are treated
as defaults that users can change. Preferences can be congured to reapply preferred settings every time
that standard Group Policies are applied (if the user has made a change), or to use the preferred setting
as a baseline conguration that the user can permanently change. This gives you the exibility to strike
an optimal balance between control and user productivity. Group Policy Preferences provides additional
exibility by enabling system administrators to congure unique settings for different groups of users or
PCs within a single GPO, without requiring WMI lters.
Internet Explorer 8 Group Policy
Internet Explorer 8 supports more than 1,300 group policies so that organizations can easily create
Internet Explorer congurations. It includes more than 100 new Group Policy settings designed to ease
browser deployment, conguration, and customization and supports many features, such as Compatibil-
ity View, Accelerators, and InPrivate Browsing Mode. For example, you can turn off InPrivate Browsing by
enabling the Turn Off InPrivate Group Policy. Group Policy also supports many Internet Explorer security
features such as SmartScreen lter, Data URI, and Encryption support to help ensure that people will be
safe in the corporate environment.
System administrators can easily change settings for Internet Explorer 8 after it has been deployed.
They can use the Internet Explorer Administrator Kit to create a conguration-only package with which
they can update security settings, apply custom branding, and change other settings for existing Inter-
net Explorer 8 deployments. System administrators also can use Group Policy to centrally change and
manage machine and user settings.
Starter Group Policy Objects
Starter GPOs in Windows 7 are collections of precongured administrative templates that you can use
as standard baseline congurations to create a live GPO. These templates encapsulate Microsoft best
practices, containing recommended policy settings and values for key enterprise scenarios. You can also
create and share you own Starter GPOs based on internal or industry regulatory requirements.
URL-based Quality of Service
System administrators today prioritize network trafc based on application, port number, and IP address.
New initiatives such as Software-as-a-Service, however, introduce the need to prioritize network trafc in
new ways. Windows 7 provides the ability to implement Quality of Service (QoS) based on URL. URL-based
QoS is congurable through Group Policy, giving you the ability to more nely tune your networks.