Note: This article is available as a PDF download. You use the Local Group Policy Editor to modify group policies on your PC. (The word Local refers to the fact that you're editing group policies on your own computer, not on some remote computer.) I'll show you how to perform the same tweak using the Registry if you're using those versions.) To start the Local Group Policy Editor, follow these steps:įigure A shows the Local Group Policy Editor window that appears. (I'll note here that the Local Group Policy Editor isn't available with Windows 7 Home and Windows 7 Home Premium. You make changes to group policies using the Local Group Policy Editor, a Microsoft Management Console snap-in. You can use them to customize the Windows 7 interface, restrict access to certain areas, specify security settings, and much more.

Put simply, group policies are settings that control how Windows works. This means that you'll use the Local Group Policy Editor in a safe, prudent manner, and that you'll create a system restore point if you plan to make any major changes. Of course, none of this doom-and-gloom applies to you, dear reader, because you're a cautious and prudent wielder of all the Windows power tools. It's a kind of electronic Pandora's box that, if opened by careless or inexperienced hands, can loose all kinds of evil upon the Windows world. That Microsoft has buried this program in a mostly untraveled section of the Windows landscape isn't the least bit surprising, because in the wrong hands, the Local Group Policy Editor can wreak all kinds of havoc on a system. In Windows 7, you can perform some pretty amazing things by using a tool that's about as hidden as any Windows power tool can be: the Local Group Policy Editor.

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