Updating Group Policy

  • Article

Applies To: Windows Server 2003 with SP1

This section discusses how to update User and Machine Group Policy.

User and Machine Group Policy

User autoenrollment is triggered by the Winlogon process (interactive logon with CTRL+ALT+DELETE keys) or at Group Policy refresh intervals. Normally, User Group Policy is refreshed at logon and Machine Group Policy is refreshed at machine reboot. Group Policy may be manually refreshed using the gpupdate.exe tool that is included in Windows XP.

Manually Forcing a Group Policy Update

To manually force a Group Policy update (for a user or a machine)

  • Run gpupdate.exe with the -Force option at the command line (Figure 16).

    Art ImageFigure 16: Forcing a Group Policy Update