How to set the Internet Explorer Home Page via GPO

There are a few different ways to do it. Do you want to force everyone's home page, and disallow changes? Or do you just want to set a default home page that people can modify?

If you want to force a home page: (Do what HopelessN00b said)

• Create a new GPO or edit the existing one. (I'm assuming you know how to do this already. Let me know if you don't.)
• In the Group Policy Management Editor, go to User Configuration -> Policies -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Internet Explorer.
• Find the policy Disable changing home page settings.
• Set it to Enabled, and specify the URL for your home page.
• Once it applies, the option in IE will be greyed out on the client PC.

If you want to specify a default that people can change:

• My preferred method would be to use Group Policy Preferences to set the necessary Registry values. (Others may disagree.)
• In the Group Policy Management Editor, go to User Configuration -> Preferences -> Windows Settings -> Registry.
• Right click -> New -> Registry Item
• Action = Update
• Hive = HKEY_CURRENT_USER
• Key Path = Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main
• Value Name = Start Page
• Value Type = REG_SZ
• Value Data = your Home Page URL
• On the Common Tab, check Apply Once and Do not Re-Apply
• This will set the home page by default for everyone, but the user will be free to edit it afterwards.
• If you go this route, I also recommend that you set a value for Default_Page_URL as well, without checking Apply Once and Do not Re-Apply. This will give your users the ability to click the Use Default button in the IE settings and get back to the company home page.
• You probably also want to delete the Secondary Start Pages and Default_Secondary_Page_URL registry values as well.
• If you are unfamiliar with these registry values, it would probably be a good idea to open the Registry Editor and look at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main to understand how they work.

Other ways you can set the IE home page:

• In the GPO editor, go to User Configuration -> Preferences -> Windows Settings -> Internet Settings. This may not work for all IE versions out of the box. You may have to update your Administrative Templates.
• In the GPO editor, go to User Configuration -> Policies -> Windows Settings -> Internet Explorer Maintenance. However, you may not have this anymore with newer Administrative Templates.
• Use the Internet Explorer Administration Kit (IEAK) to create a customized IE build and deploy that.
• Use a logon script to apply the same registry settings listed above.

One thing to note about GPOs: Any of the settings in the "Preferences" sections of your GPO will only apply if you have the Group Policy Preference Client Side Extensions and the corresponding dependencies installed. Windows 7-era PCs support this out of the box. However, Vista and XP machines need an update to provide this functionality. A fully updated machine should already have this installed, but if do a reinstall it will take a few patch-reboot cycles.