OPTION II

Use Group Policy Preferences (GPP)

The advantage of using Group Policy Preferences is that it allows you to specify a default home page but still allow users to change it if they want.

Windows 2012 R2 Demo:

• From GPMC.MSC navigate to your GPO object and edit
• Go to: User Configuration / Preferences / Control Panel Settings / Internet Settings
• Right Click on Internet Settings and select Internet Explorer 10

• The first thing we notice is that we have red underline settings:Settings which are underlined in red are not configured at the target machine, while settings underlined in green are configured at the target machine.
  In order to change the underlining, use the following function keys:F5 – Enable all settings on the current tab
  F6 – Enable the currently selected setting
  F7 – Disable the currently selected setting
  F8 – Disable all settings on the current tabArticle reference: http://blogs.technet.com/b/grouppolicy/archive/2008/10/13/red-green-gp-preferences-doesn-t-work-even-though-the-policy-applied-and-after-gpupdate-force.aspx

  I would encourage pressing a F8 to disable all before configuring anything as the recommended scenario is to configure only the settings you want to apply.

  DEFAULT, WITH RED UNDERLINED INDICATING IS NOT ACTIVE

  EDIT MODE, AFTER DEPRESSING F6 TO ACTIVATE AND EDIT THE SETTING. NOTICED THE GREEN UNDERLINE!

• Add the homepage  and click Apply and OK to complete.

• You will now see the GPP IE Setting Policy configured

RELATED RESOURCES:

• How to configure Group Policy Preference settings for Internet Explorer 11 in Windows 8.1 or Windows Server 2012 R2
  • https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2898604
• Group Policy Search Tool: http://gpsearch.azurewebsites.net

This blog has been provided to you by the IE Support team!