Group Policy: Fundamentals, Security, and Troubleshooting

4.1. Group Policy Processing Principles

For you to best understand how Windows XP or Windows Vista processes GPOs, I'll first describe how Windows 2000 does its thing. Then, we'll better understand how and why Windows XP's and Windows Vista's processing is different. Sure, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008 also process GPOs as a Group Policy client. We'll pepper in that information when necessary. But, as you're reading along, try to focus on the typical client computer.

To get a feel of how GPO processing works, we're going to walk through what happens to three users:

• Wally, who uses only a Windows 2000 Professional machine

• Xavier, who uses only a Windows XP machine

• Victoria, who uses only a Windows Vista machine

By using Wally, Xavier, ...