Mastering Windows - gpedit

Group policy is a setting that is made for a particular group of users.
An example is, if you want to disallow users from changing the firewall settings for your internet.
To do this Windows provides a tool called "Group Policy Editor". Go to your Run box (Start > Run) and type "gpedit.msc", you will see a window like the one above.

You will see two main configuration options

• Computer Configuration (for general settings like firewalls, error reporting etc.)
  
• User Configuration (for user specific settings like folder sharing, display options etc.)

In the "Administrative templates" key of each section you will find a host of settings that can be changed, along with detailed a explanation. For e.g. if you wish to change your settings so that users cannot change firewall settings, you can go to :
"Computer Configuration > Administrative templates > Network > Network Connections > Standard Profile"

and change...

Windows Firewall: Protect all connections - Enabled
Windows Firewal: Do not allow exceptions - Enabled

Let the tinkerer in you free, you can change a variety of settings in both sections that allow you to modify the way your Windows runs.