Group Policy is a feature of the Microsoft Windows NT family of operating systems that controls the working environment of user accounts and computer accounts. Group Policy provides centralized management and configuration of operating systems, applications, and users’ settings in an Active Directory environment.
A set of Group Policy configurations is called a Group Policy Object (GPO). A version of Group Policy called Local Group Policy (LGPO or LocalGPO) allows Group Policy Object management without Active Directory on standalone computers.
Operation
Group Policy, in part, controls what users can and cannot do on a computer system: for example, to enforce a password complexity policy that prevents users from choosing an overly simple password, to allow or prevent unidentified users from remote computers to connect to a network share, to block access to the Windows Task Manager or to restrict access to certain folders. A set of such configurations is called a Group Policy Object (GPO).
As part of Microsoft’s IntelliMirror technologies, Group Policy aims to reduce the cost of supporting users. IntelliMirror technologies relate to the management of disconnected machines or roaming users and include roaming user profiles, folder redirection, and offline files.