Category: At least Windows 2000

This policy setting specifies additional programs or documents that Windows starts automatically when a user logs on to the system. If you enable this policy setting you can specify which programs can run at the time the user logs on to this computer that has this policy applied. To specify values for this policy setting click Show. In the Show Contents dialog box in the Value column type the name of the executable program (. exe) file or document file. To specify another name press ENTER and type the name. Unless the file is located in the %Systemroot% directory you must specify the fully qualified path to the file. If you disable or do not configure this policy setting the user will have to start the appropriate programs after logon. Note: This setting appears in the Computer Configuration and User Configuration folders. If both settings are configured the system starts the programs specified in the Computer Configuration setting just before it starts the programs specified in the User Configuration setting. Also see the “”Do not process the legacy run list”” and the “”Do not process the run once list”” settings.

This policy setting ignores customized run-once lists. You can create a customized list of additional programs and documents that are started automatically the next time the system starts (but not thereafter). These programs are added to the standard list of programs and services that the system starts. If you enable this policy setting the system ignores the run-once list. If you disable or do not configure this policy setting the system runs the programs in the run-once list. This policy setting appears in the Computer Configuration and User Configuration folders. If both policy settings are configured the policy setting in Computer Configuration takes precedence over the policy setting in User Configuration. Note: Customized run-once lists are stored in the registry in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> Software -> Microsoft -> Windows -> CurrentVersion -> RunOnce. Also see the “”Do not process the legacy run list”” policy setting.

This policy setting ignores the customized run list. You can create a customized list of additional programs and documents that the system starts automatically when it runs on Windows Vista Windows XP Professional and Windows 2000 Professional. These programs are added to the standard run list of programs and services that the system starts. If you enable this policy setting the system ignores the run list for Windows Vista Windows XP Professional and Windows 2000 Professional. If you disable or do not configure this policy setting Windows Vista adds any customized run list configured to its run list. This policy setting appears in the Computer Configuration and User Configuration folders. If both policy settings are configured the policy setting in Computer Configuration takes precedence over the policy setting in User Configuration. Note: To create a customized run list by using a policy setting use the “”Run these applications at startup”” policy setting. Also see the “”Do not process the run once list”” policy setting.

This policy setting allows you to create new Group Policy object links in the disabled state. If you enable this setting you can create all new Group Policy object links in the disabled state by default. After you configure and test the new object links by using a policy compliant Group Policy management tool such as Active Directory Users and Computers or Active Directory Sites and Services you can enable the object links for use on the system. If you disable this setting or do not configure it new Group Policy object links are created in the enabled state. If you do not want them to be effective until they are configured and tested you must disable the object link.

This policy setting allows you to set the default display name for new Group Policy objects. This setting allows you to specify the default name for new Group Policy objects created from policy compliant Group Policy Management tools including the Group Policy tab in Active Directory tools and the GPO browser. The display name can contain environment variables and can be a maximum of 255 characters long. If this setting is Disabled or Not Configured the default display name of New Group Policy object is used.

This policy setting specifies how often Group Policy for users is updated while the computer is in use (in the background). This setting specifies a background update rate only for the Group Policies in the User Configuration folder. In addition to background updates Group Policy for users is always updated when users log on. By default user Group Policy is updated in the background every 90 minutes with a random offset of 0 to 30 minutes. If you enable this setting you can specify an update rate from 0 to 64800 minutes (45 days). If you select 0 minutes the computer tries to update user Group Policy every 7 seconds. However because updates might interfere with users’ work and increase network traffic very short update intervals are not appropriate for most installations. If you disable this setting user Group Policy is updated every 90 minutes (the default). To specify that Group Policy for users should never be updated while the computer is in use select the “Turn off background refresh of Group Policy” setting. This setting also lets you specify how much the actual update interval varies. To prevent clients with the same update interval from requesting updates simultaneously the system varies the update interval for each client by a random number of minutes. The number you type in the random time box sets the upper limit for the range of variance. For example if you type 30 minutes the system selects a variance of 0 to 30 minutes. Typing a large number establishes a broad range and makes it less likely that client requests overlap. However updates might be delayed significantly. Important: If the “Turn off background refresh of Group Policy” setting is enabled this setting is ignored. Note: This setting establishes the update rate for user Group Policies. To set an update rate for computer Group Policies use the “Group Policy refresh interval for computers” setting (located in Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System -> Group Policy). Tip: Consider notifying users that their policy is updated periodically so that they recognize the signs of a policy update. When Group Policy is updated the Windows desktop is refreshed; it flickers briefly and closes open menus. Also restrictions imposed by Group Policies such as those that limit the programs a user can run might interfere with tasks in progress.