I'm looking into a possibility of using Windows Server 2003 to manage computers Power Schemes through Group Policy. We have many computers that are out in use and need to stay on 24/7 basically.

I have had issues where somehow the users are able to change the power settings on these stations, which they are not supposed to, I already have a policy setup and in place that should prevent them from changing any settings on the machine including screen saver and desktop background, along with many other features.

What I want to do with these computers is the following:
Do not turn off Monitor
If Power is pressed, Do nothing
Standby after, Never
Sleep after, Never
Turn off HDD after, Never
and so on...

Basically these stations should stay running all day, everyday, unless power itself is pulled. Is there a way to do this in Server 2003? I've been through plenty of the settings in the GPO Editor and have yet to find anything about Power Schemes. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

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Well, I see what they are doing but I don't see those options in 2003... By default those options are there on the Group Policy Management Editor... But we have the Group Policy Object Editor on our DC. I can't find these options anywhere inside of the GPOE.

That doesn't help with what we're looking to do. I understand about how the power settings and schemes are by user... Though what these computers do is log in automatically as one user, and we are looking at forcing the chosen settings upon log in and start up.

Here is what we have:
25 Computers logged in under user1 (by auto log on), Collect info and report.
30 Computers logged in under user2 (by auto log on), Collect different info and report.
17 Computers logged in under user3 (by auto log on), Report and look over previous info and reports upon status of production.

All of the computers listed above all use different in house applications to do its job, these are the computers that should stay on 24/7 and we are looking into forcing a power policy upon the computers and users that are logged in. This would give us the ability to deploy our computers and replace them as needed without having to go in and reset and change the settings every time we add a new computer to the domain, its just add the computer to a Group/OU and the Policy takes over the rest.

Well, that covers the Per computer portion. How would you go about doing this with the User power settings such as screensaver and so on?

Okay... I'm killing the article and even though it says solved, There really is no clear answer ecxept to move up to MS SVR 2008 DC and control them that way. Thanks for the assistance for those that tried.

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