Group Policy

Microsoft Management Console Snap-in Extension Model

The main nodes of the Group Policy snap-in are MMC snap-in extensions. These extensions include Administrative Templates, Scripts, Security Settings, Software Installation, Remote Installation Services, Internet Explorer Maintenance, and Folder Redirection.

By default, all the available Group Policy snap-in extensions load when you start the Group Policy snap-in. You can modify this default behavior by using the MMC method of creating custom consoles and by using policy settings to control the behavior of MMC.

See the settings under User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Microsoft Management Console\ and its subfolders for Group Policy settings concerning MMC.

Developers can create an MMC extension to the Group Policy snap-in to expand its capability to provide additional settings. These snap-in extensions can, in turn, be extended. An example of such an extensible snap-in is the Security Settings snap-in, which includes several snap-in extensions.

For information about creating MMC consoles for delegating Group Policy and related tasks, see "Delegating Control of Group Policy" later in this chapter.

For information about the Group Policy snap-in extensions, see "Extensions to the Group Policy Snap-in" later in this chapter.

For more information about Microsoft Management Console and Group Policy, see the Microsoft Platform SDK link on the Web Resources page at http://windows.microsoft.com/windows2000/reskit/webresources.