System Policy

On computers running Windows NT Workstation or Windows NT Server, the contents of the user profile are taken from the user portion of the Windows NT Registry. Another part of the registry, the local computer portion, contains configuration settings that can be managed along with user profiles.

Using the System Policy Editor, you can create a system policy to control user work environments and actions and to enforce system configuration for all computers running Windows NT Workstation and Windows NT Server.

With system policies, you can control some aspects of user work environments without enforcing the restrictions of a mandatory user profile. You can restrict what users can do from the desktop, such as which options in Control Panel they can use, and customize parts of the desktop or configure network settings.

For more information on using the System Policy Editor to control user work environments, see Windows NT Server Concepts and Planning.