I need to set the default home page for the entire domain via gpo Where is the ie home page policy?

Best Answer

There are various ways to do it Will it affect everyone's home page? What should i do if i want a default home page that can be edited by anyone?

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

Create a new gpo or modify an 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 this 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 the 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 modify 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 homepage
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 might 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 script logon 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 Windows vista and xp machines however need an update to provide this functionality The full updated machine should already have this installed but if you do a reinstall it will take a few patch-reboot cycles