Windows 2000 Administration in a Nutshell

Name

Security Templates — PP

Synopsis

Defines security templates that can be applied to a Group Policy Object (GPO) to define its security settings.

Description

A security template is an .inf file containing different security settings for a GPO. Windows 2000 includes a number of default security templates, which can be viewed using this tool. These default templates represent typical security settings for different levels of security (low, medium, or high) on different roles of computers (domain controllers, member servers, or workstations). The default templates can also be used as a basis for creating custom templates, which can then be imported into a GPO.

Security Templates has some similarity to the Windows NT 4.0 Server administrative tool, System Policy Editor, but goes well beyond it.

Using Security Templates

You access Security Templates by installing the snap-in in a new or existing MMC console. A typical console tree looks like this:

Security Templates Template Search Path Template Template . . . 

The list of templates includes the default templates plus any additional ones you define. For information on the default security templates, see Local Security Policy.

Action Menu

Under the Action menu you can select the following:

Security Templates

Select this to define a new template search path.

Template Search Path (C:\WINNT \Security\Templates by default )

Select this to create a new template or delete an existing one. You can use Save As to save a copy of an existing template under ...