Managing Users’ Options with System Policies

Setting the Standards for Your Organization

System policies help you control how your users work with Office 2000. By using system policies, you can configure Office 2000 to your own specifications. You can even use system policies to lock down Office options to varying degrees, depending on the level to which you want to control user options. By using system policies, you determine which options are available to your users.

You create a system policy file and store the file on your server. When users log on to client computers, the system policy file is downloaded, and the system policies are enforced. If you need to change a policy, you update the policy file on the server, and then the policy is automatically updated on each client computer the next time users log on.

Because of differences in how the Windows registry works, the Microsoft Windows® 95/98 and Microsoft Windows NT® operating systems require different formats for system policies. You can use the same System Policy Editor, however, to create policy files for client computers running any of these operating systems.

Note   The Windows 3.1 and Macintosh® operating systems do not support system policies on client computers.

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See also

System policies can be used to enforce a consistent user interface among all the Office users in your organization. For more information about using system policies to lock down options in Office 2000, see Locking Down an Office Configuration.

The Office 2000 Resource Kit includes a new version of the System Policy Editor. For detailed instructions about setting system policies with the new version, see Using the System Policy Editor.