How to set Internet Explorer Homepage using GPO (Group Policy)

How to set Internet Explorer Homepage using GPO (Group Policy)

In this post, we will learn the steps to set Internet Explorer homepage using group policy. This policy would force the users to use the Homepage that you set using Group Policy Objects. Setting home page of Internet Explorer through group policy is one of the simplest yet effectual methods. It is very important requirement coming from many Organizations who wants to show a particular website as home page to their users.

Let’s assume a scenario in which, an Organization want’s to set Internet Explorer homepage for all the users that are in Sales department. To achieve the desired results, create an OU and add users in the same.

Requirements:
On the Domain Controller, create an Organizational Unit with the name Sales.
Create some users in Sales OU (For these users we’ll set Internet Explorer Homepage GPO)

Steps to set Internet Explorer Homepage using group policy are as follows:

1. We have created an Organizational Unit (OU) naming “Sales” and add some users in the OU.

2. Open GPMC console, right click on the OU “Sales” and then click on “Create a GPO in this domain, and Link it here“.

More about Group Polices

3. On New GPO console, enter the name of the group policy object. In this practical, the name of our GPO is “Internet Explorer Homepage“. Click on Ok.

4. Right click on the GPO “Internet Explorer Homepage” and click on “Edit” to modify the GPO settings. Default Group Policy Objects are blank templates, we have to define the policy to make it work.

5. To set Internet Explorer home page using GPO, on Group Policy Management Editor Console, under User Configuration expand Policies then expand Administrative Templates. Under Windows Components click on Internet Explorer. Now double click on “Disable changing home page settings” to open its settings.

6. On “Disable changing home page settings” console, select “Enabled” to enable the policy and specify the URL of the default home page. Click on Apply and Ok to continue. In this practical we’ll set “www.itingredients.com” as the home page.

7. Log in to any client computer with any user account added in the OU “Sales” and open the Internet Options of Internet Explorer. Here, we can see that the home page is set to the URL which we specified in the group policy i.e. “https://itingredients.com/“.

8. Now browse to Tools, Internet Options, in the General tab we can see that homepage is set to http://www.itingredient.com and user doesn’t have an option to change the default homepage.

Please share your experience, if you are using similar kind of Group Policy in your environment or if you are of an opinion that it would help you in your Organization.

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