How to Set Internet Explorer home page via GPO

How to Set Internet Explorer home page via GPO

In this post we will discuss on how to set Internet Explorer home page via GPO. There are many ways to set home page. You can do it manually in internet explorer by changing URL in home page through internet explorer properties. You can use the manual method if you have to do this for few PC. But if you want to do it for your organization than doing it with GPO is a better option. In some companies, it is necessary to set a specific URL as a homepage internet explorer. Many times it is a company website. You can do it with help of Group Policy. And with the help of Group policy you can restrict users to change home page.

How to Set Internet Explorer home page via GPO Server 2012

Open Group Policy Management Console go to Group policy object right click on it. Then click on new then enter a name of the policy then click OK. In this example I created it with name Internet Explorer Home Page. You can choose any name.

Right click on the GPO “Internet Explorer Home Page” that you have created and click on edit.

Open User Configuration- Policies- Administrative Templates- WindowsComponents- Internet Explorer. Here you will find a policy with the name Disable changing home page settings right click on it then click on edit.

It is disabled click on enable to enable it and enter the URL in the Home Page tab for your home page. Then click on OK.

Group policy to change internet explorer home page is created. Now it’s time to link it with organization unit (OU). So that this policy will apply on users. You can also link it to your domain.

To link this GPO with Organization Unit right click on OU on which you want to apply this policy. Then click on Link an Existing GPO.

Here you will find your GPO select it and click on OK.

That’s it you have done. A policy has been created to set internet explorer home page via GPO. Now it’s time to test it.

Logon to the client computer with the user name that is in OU on which you applied Policy. Open internet explorer you can see a default home page is set to the URL you specified in GPO. If policy not applied do it by running command gpupdate /force. You can also see that user does not have rights to change home page.

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