Understanding Group Policy Objects

GPOs contain all the Group Policy settings that administrators wish to deploy to user and computer objects within a domain, site, or OU. To deploy a GPO, an administrator must associate it with a container. This association is achieved by linking the GPO to the desired AD DS domain, site, or OU object. Administrative tasks for Group Policy include creating GPOs, specifying where to store them, and managing the AD DS links.
There are three types of GPOs: local GPOs, nonlocal GPOs, and starter GPOs.
Local GPOs (LGPOs)
All Windows operating systems have support for local GPOs, sometimes known as LGPOs.Windows versions since Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Vista can support multiple local GPOs. This support enables administrators to specify a different local GPO for administrators and to create specific GPO settings for one or more local users configured on a workstation. This ability is particularly valuable for computers in public locations such as libraries and kiosks, when they are not part of an Active Directory infrastructure. Older
Windows releases can support only one local GPO and the settings in that local GPO apply to all users who log on to the computer.
Local GPOs contain fewer options than domain GPOs. They do not support folder redirection or Group Policy software installation. Fewer security settings are available. When a local and a nonlocal (Active Directory–based) GPO have conflicting settings, the nonlocal GPO settings overwrite the local GPO settings.

Nonlocal GPOsNonlocal GPOs are created in AD DS and linked to sites, domains, and OUs. Once linked to a
container, the settings in the GPO are applied to all users and computers within that container by default.
Starter GPOs
Starter GPOs were introduced in Windows Server 2008. A starter GPO is essentially a template for the creation of domain GPOs based on a standard collection of settings. When you create a new GPO from a starter GPO, all the settings in the starter GPO are automatically copied to the new GPO as its default settings.