User Policy May Be Used When Group Policies Are Enabled (168120)

SYMPTOMS

When group policies have been established and the default user has also been configured to have policies, some default user policies may be applied even though the user is a member of a group with policies.

CAUSE

The Default User policy is implemented before group policies. If the group policy for the user does not have an option enabled or disabled, the Default User policy for that option is used.

RESOLUTION

If you do not want any default user policies implemented, use one of the following methods:

Using System Policy editor, open the policy file and delete the Default User.
Verify that every option that is set in the Default User policy is either enabled or disabled in the group policy. When an option is unavailable, there is no policy for the option, and it can be modified by setting the Default User policy. If an option is not set in the group policy, settings in the Default User policy can modify the option.

MORE INFORMATION

For example, if you have enabled the Don't Save Settings At Exit option in the Default User policy, and you are a member of a group that has the same option marked as not used (the option is unavailable), the Don't Save Settings At Exit setting is written to the registry and changes to settings will not be saved.

System Policy options have three states:

Enabled (checked): this policy will be implemented
Disabled (cleared): this policy will not be implemented.
Unavailable (appears dimmed): this setting is unchanged from the last time the user logged on.

For more information about profiles and policies, see Chapter 15 in the Microsoft Windows 95 Resource Kit.