Enabling and Disabling Mac OS X Group Policies

Like other group policies, policies for Mac OS X users and computers are organized into categories within the Windows Group Policy Object Editor under Computer Configuration > Delinea Settings or User Configuration > Delinea Settings. These categories typically map to Mac OS X system preferences and individual policy settings map to specific system preferences settings.

Once enabled, policies get applied at the next group policy refresh interval, after the user logs out and logs back in, or after the computer has been rebooted. The description of each group policy indicates whether the policy can be applied “dynamically” at the next refresh interval or requires a re-login or a reboot.

The system preference updated on an individual computer must be closed, then reopened for the group policy setting to be visible.

In most cases, group policies can be Enabled to activate the policy or Disabled to deactivate a previously enabled policy. Changing a policy to Not Configured has no effect for any Mac OS X group policies. Once a group policy is set on a local computer, it remains in effect even if the computer leaves the Active Directory domain. The administrator or users with an administrative account can change settings manually at the local computer, but any manual change are overwritten when the group policy is applied.