One of the most common troubleshooting question I receive is regarding Group Policy. Usually because a policy does not seem to be applying to the user or computer as configured on the DC.

 

So let’s look at the basic troubleshooting for 2000/2003/XP machines….

 

First, make sure the machines you wish the policy to apply to are running Windows 2000/2003 or XP (or Vista/Longhorn if you are beta testing). Most people know that Group Policy only applies to Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows 2003 but occasionally I recieve an email about why a policy won’t apply to a Windows 9x machine. If you are experiencing problems with Windows 9x machines, that is because they do not understand Group Policy.

 

Next, verify the user/machine accounts are in the Organizational Unit(OU) where the policy is linked. It is very common for someone to think a policy should apply only to find out the User or Machine account is not in the correct OU.

 

On the machines where you believe the policy shold be applying, you can check to see if it is with these steps —

 

For Windows 2000 machines – Go to a command prompt and run

 

SECEDIT /REFRESHPOLICY USER_POLICY /ENFORCE

SECEDIT /REFRESHPOLICY MACHINE_POLICY /ENFORCE

 

These commands will refresh the policy on the client machine. You would then run the previous command to check to see if the policy has applied. If the policy is listed but is not applying, check out this article for Windows 2000 Clients –

 

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q250842

 

For Windows XP/2003 machines – Go to a command prompt and run –

 

GPRESULT

 

If you do not see that your policy is applied, run the following at the command prompt –

 

GPUPDATE /FORCE

 

For XP, this will refresh the policy on the client machine. You would then run the previous command to check to see if the policy has applied. If the policy is listed but is not applying, check out this article for Windows XP/2003 machines  –

 

Group Policy Troubleshooting on XP

 

I also recommend the following White papers —

 

Troubleshooting Group Policy on Windows 2000

Troubleshooting Group Policy Problems

Group Policy Management Console

 

 

Cheers!