The Group Policy Object Editor is a tool that hosts MMC extension snap-ins that manage policy settings. All functionality is provided by extension snap-ins.

Administrators manage policy settings using the Group Policy Object Editor. The Group Policy Object Editor extends other administrative tools such as the Active Directory Users and Computers snap-in and the Active Directory Site and Services Manager snap-in.

All policy settings created by the Group Policy Object Editor are stored in a GPO. The policy settings you provide with the Group Policy Object Editor do not take effect until the system applies policy.

For more information, see the following topics:

• About the MMC Extension Snap-in Model
• Group Policy Object Editor Namespace
• Extensions to the Group Policy Object Editor
• Client-side Extensions to Group Policy

Be aware that earlier versions of the Platform Software Development Kit (SDK) referred to the Group Policy snap-in. For computers running on Windows Server 2003 and later operating systems, the snap-in has been renamed to Group Policy Object Editor.