System and Group Policies Applied to the User

A system policy used in Windows NT 4.0 is in the form of a binary file that has mandated registry settings that override any existing settings in the user's profile. These settings are cached as part of the user's profile.

Windows 2000 policy settings are located in a different area of the registry. Windows 2000 components also expect these settings to be in a different location and use the settings located there to configure the user's environment.

Because of this, a user logging on to Windows NT 4 receives administrator-mandated settings from the Ntconfig.pol file. This is downloaded from a domain controller in the user's account domain. The mandated settings may be present anywhere in the user's profile. When the user roams to a Windows 2000-based computer, Group Policy places the settings from any Group Policy Objects (GPOs) that apply to the user in the following registry location:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies

NOTE: If the administrative template (.adm file) used in creating the GPO settings is from Windows NT 4.0 or earlier, the settings may be applied outside of the key listed above.

This should not present any problem. However, the size of the user's profile is increased by the number of registry values mandated by both types of policy. The administrator should be aware of this behavior when setting policies in Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000.