Why Policies?

An alternative to creating policies for your mobile workforce is to edit and lock the Registry. Although this approach might sound appealing, it can present administrative nightmares­nightmares you can avoid by using system policies.

For example, if you lock the Registry, the lockout applies to every user who logs on, including administrators. So if you need to add software, modify printers, or make other user changes, you must re-edit the Registry so that you have the power to make the changes. Then you must make the changes and reapply the Registry restrictions. With system policies, making changes for users is much simpler. You simply use a different logon from the users' logon to gain full administrative rights.