Windows 8 Group Policy

[G-Stress]

So I finally bought my 8 year old a laptop today which had windows 8. Was tempted to wipe it and install win7 as I don't have a copy of 8 yet. My problem is I want to lock it down and restrict access. It's my first time really using windows 8 and the first thing I looked for was Group Policy.

After a bit of googling I can't find anything on this machine relating to GP, secpol, gpedit, none of that. Apparently this is the "stripped down" version of windows 8. When I run winver or in computer properties all I see is windows 8, not Basic, Home or Starter.

Is there a way I can get GP on this machine? The family safety features are nice, but with annoying notification pop ups.

The laptop is a HP Pavilion G4 if that helps any.

[sober]

stripped down as in windows 8 rt? if so there is no domain joining or even local group policy. i see you have already looked at options provided but maybe below policy will help, i was talking with a coworker the other day and he said he had a nice setup for his children that didn't sound too invasive on the alerts end, i could get that info again and pass it on perhaps.

http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-57533877-285/how-to-use-parental-controls-in-windows-8/

[G-Stress]

I'm not sure, is that what Windows RT is? I just heard about RT the other day and from what I saw it looked to be the tablet version of windows 8. This is probably RT I suppose, because I don't see any way to join a domain or anything.

I have already setup family safety and I must say it is nice and has improved quite a bit from the last time I've messed with it, but it does display annoying notifications even when the filtered user isn't attempting to use the blocked app/game, etc.

The family safety works to a certain extent. Mainly safe surfing and blocked apps, I don't see anyway to block cmd.exe, control panel, etc. Those are my big concerns now.

Thanks for the response.

[misfitsman805]

Windows 8 Does Not have a Basic, Home or Starter edition. There is only Windows 8 (also known as Core edition), Windows 8 Pro, Windows 8 Enterprise (This edition is available to Software Assurance customers, as well as MSDN and Technet Professional subscribers) and Windows RT (Which is pre-installed on ARM-based devices such as tablet PCs).

Windows 8 (Core edition) does not have Group Policies. Only Windows 8 Pro and Enterprise edition.

Also Windows 8 (Core edition) can not join a windows domain either. Only Windows 8 Pro and Enterprise edition.

So to make a long story short, You will have to find some other software to handle blocking programs and access to control panel etc.

[G-Stress]

That's what I was afraid of. I'm sure I can find something or put something together, my concern is being it windows based, the program/software crashes and does not work for a session once it crashes. Steady State for example I used that before and I like the features it has, but it wasn't the most reliable. Guess I will just have to get a copy of Pro or Enterprise.

Thanks for the info in win8 I haven't done a lot of research other then trying to find GP. I wasn't a big fan until I saw it does have a desktop environment.

[G-Stress]

For anyone interested I did find this when I first started looking into the issue, but I don't really want to buy a program

http://www.manageengine.com/products/ad-manager/active-directory-management.html?CampaignID=50401&kw=active%2520directory%2520management&adId=6344904612&gclid=CLOPt_aKzrUCFYZcMgodf38A8Q