User Group Policy settings don't apply to Administrators?

[Guest void.no.spam.com@gmail.com]

I've been playing around with Group Policy on my standalone Windows XP

SP2 machine tonight, and found something peculiar.

 

I made some changes under User Configuration:

- I added a logon script and a logoff script

- I changed the Browser Title (this makes it so that the IE title bar

will display "Microsoft Internet Explorer provided by YOUR TEXT)

- I set the "Remove My Documents icon from Start Menu" Administrative

Template to Enabled

 

Then I logged in as a normal user, and I confirmed that the logon

script had been executed, the IE title bar showed the "provided by"

text, and My Documents was not in the Start Menu.

 

But when I logged back in as my user (who is in the Administrators

group), the logon script did not execute, the IE title bar did not

show the "provided by" text, and the My Documents was still in the

Start Menu.

 

What's going on here? Does everything under User Configuration in the

Group Policy only apply for non-Administrators?

[Guest void.no.spam.com@gmail.com]

Re: User Group Policy settings don't apply to Administrators?

 

I just tried the Browser Title and Admin Template changes under

Windows 2000, and they were applied to Administrator, so something

isn't right with Windows XP.

[Guest void.no.spam.com@gmail.com]

Re: User Group Policy settings don't apply to Administrators?

 

OK, this has gotten confusing. The XP machine (let's call it

OldLaptop) is a laptop that I had used at a previous company, where we

logged in thru a domain. The machine still lets me log in using the

domain account, even though it's not on a domain anymore. I just

found out that the User Configuration settings don't apply for that

domain administrative user, but they do apply for a local

administrative user.

 

But earlier today I tested this on my other XP laptop at work (let's

call it NewLaptop). I discovered that the User Configuration settings

*do* apply for an domain administrative user who is logged in to a

domain. But based on my testing with OldLaptop, they don't apply for

a domain administrative user who is not logged in to a domain.

 

Now I've just done some more testing with NewLaptop. I logged in as a

domain administrative user (locally, not thru a domain), enabled some

User Configuration settings, and they did not apply, as I expected.

Then I connected to my company's VPN (which I guess logs me in to the

domain), and the User Configuration settings got applied about 5

seconds after the VPN was connected. That coincides with my findings

from earlier today. So then I disconnected the VPN, and the User

Configuration settings remained applied, which is not consistent with

my findings from testing OldLaptop. I even logged out of Windows and

relogged in as the domain administrative user (locally, not thru the

domain), and the User Configuration settings were still applied.

 

So it's not just whether a domain administrative user is logged in

locally or on a domain that affects whether the local User

Configuration settings are applied to him or not. It looks like the

previous state of the User Configuration settings (if they were

previously enabled or disabled or not configured) before they were

changed also has something to do with it.