I teach several classes that cover Windows deployment, operations, and troubleshooting. Most of the content I teach is focused on enterprise environments – that is, generally, more than 5,000 systems. At that scale centralized IT management is a requirement, not an option. And the cornerstone of centralized computer configuration management in Windows are Active Directory and Group Policy.
How to Refresh Windows Computer Policies Step 1) Launch a Command Line Window Click on the Start Menu button, type 'cmd' (without the quotes) into the search bar. Step 2) Run gpupdate /force Within the Command Line window, type gpupdate /force and then press Enter on your keyboard. Step 3) Restart. I would also try logging into the device as another user and run the gpupdate /force and see if you get the same issues. This will also allow you to see if it is a user issue, device issue or server issue. Please let me know how you go with this so I can provide more solutions for you to try. GPUPDATE will apply new and changed policies, it will not remove an existing setting where the policy is set to 'not configured' Examples. Run a background update to install any new Group Policy settings: C: GPUpdate. Force a background update of all Group Policy settings, regardless of whether they have changed: C: GPUpdate /Force. Then I ran GPUpdate /force on the HR computers to get the setting.” A common alternate ending to that story is replacing the GPUpdate /force command with rebooting the computer. Neither rebooting the computer nor running GPUpdate /force are necessary. Group Policy Updates Itself.
Many of my students relate stories of making changes to Group Policy settings. Usually the story goes something like, “We needed to change the screensaver timeout period to kick in after 5 minutes for the HR department. So I edited the Group Policy and under User Configuration, Administrative Templates, Control Panel, Personalization, I set the ‘Screen saver timeout’ to 600 seconds. Then I ran GPUpdate /force on the HR computers to get the setting.” A common alternate ending to that story is replacing the GPUpdate /force command with rebooting the computer.
Neither rebooting the computer nor running GPUpdate /force are necessary.
Group Policy Updates Itself
Yup, the Group Policy service on all domain-joined client computers regularly checks with Active Directory to see if anything has changed. If new or changed policies exist, they are applied to the computer. By default, Group Policy updates every 60 to 120 minutes, as well as during system startup. This is a configurable setting, but in my experience most IT shops don’t need it to be any shorter or longer. Background refresh can also be disabled, but this is also rarely done in an organization that actively uses Group Policy for configuration management.
That means the changed screen saver timeout setting, like all other Group Policy changes, will apply to all target computers within 2 hours without any further action. If the setting isn’t mission-critical (and most aren’t) you should not do anything further with the client computers.
Forcing Group Policy to Update Immediately
When considering how to make the Group Policy changes to apply immediately you should consider these points:
Please don’t do this. You’re causing unnecessary overhead to client computers and domain controllers. Group Policy is designed to do it for you automagically.
If you must, just use GPUpdate. GPUpdate scans for new and changed settings and applies only those changes.
Don’t use GPUpdate /force. Adding the /force switch causes the Group Policy service to reprocess all policies, not just the changes. This is more taxing to the domain controllers and the client computers, and is only required when you believe there’s a problem with Group Policy applying correctly. No problem = no /force.
You don’t need to reboot the computer to have Group Policy apply unless you’ve made a change that can only be applied on startup.
To be clear, using GPUpdate /force is quite helpful as a troubleshooting tool when there’s a problem downloading or applying policy. But it’s the wrong tool for its most common use: immediately applying a setting change.
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CategoryWindows Server 2012Tags
Run Gpupdate Force
/Force, Active Directory, Administrative Templates, Control Panel, GPUpdate, Group Policy, Personalization, User Configuration