New in Windows 8.1 is the “Boot to Desktop” feature, where the user can choose not to boot to the Windows Tiles, but directly to the desktop! That’s a really nice feature if you ask me! How can we centrally configure and manage these feature for all my users or just a group of users? Exactly, through a group policy with User Preferences. It’s a user settings, so you could also use RES Workspace Manager for example.
1.) Navigate to your Group Policy Management Console
2.) Create a new Group Policy and disable the Computer Settings
3.) Open the policy and navigate to User Configuration / Preferences / Windows Settings / Registry
4.) Create a new Registry Item
5.) Choose for Hive “HKEY_CURRENT_USER” and Navigate in the Key Path to:
Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StartPage
6.) The Value name is “OpenAtLogon“
6.) Choose the Value type “REG_DWORD”
7) The Value data is:
Boots to Desktop = “0”
Boots to Start Menu = “1”
8.) Attach the group policy to a organizational unit(s) and login to your Windows 8.1 machine!
