Controlling the Scope of Group Policy Objects using GPMC

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

Controlling the Scope of Group Policy Objects

The process of targeting Group Policy objects (GPOs) to specific users and computers is referred to as scoping the GPO. In order to apply GPOs to users or computers, you must first link them to sites, domains, or organizational units. In addition, you can change the default order in which GPOs are processed by changing the link order, blocking policy inheritance, enforcing a GPO link (previously known as no override), and disabling a GPO link. After linking GPOs, you have two additional options for applying greater precision: security filtering and WMI filtering on the GPO. Loopback processing allows you to ensure that a consistent set of policies is applied to any user logging on to a particular computer.

This section contains the following information:

• Managing inheritance of Group Policy

• Security filtering using GPMC

• WMI filtering using GPMC

• Loopback processing with merge or replace