Windows 10 and Windows 11 editions above Home (specifically Pro, Pro for Workstations—Windows 10 only, Enterprise, and Education) include the built-in administration tool GPEDIT.MSC, better known as the Local Group Policy Editor. This tool includes a wide range of policies (settings) and is designed to force changes in the OS and accounts configuration. It is implemented as a Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in with a fairly user-friendly and intuitive graphical interface to manage and configure Group Policy settings.
Group Policy is a fundamental Windows administrative framework that provides centralized management of system configurations and security protocols across networked Windows environments. As business networks become increasingly complex and diverse, the Group Policy framework enables systematic deployment, management, and enforcement of computer and user policies, security protocols, and software configurations across distributed endpoints, ensuring organizational compliance and system standardization.
Whether managing a small business network or enterprise environment, mastering remote Group Policy deployment will significantly reduce your operational overhead, strengthen security posture, and eliminate common management challenges. This comprehensive guide explores Group Policy essentials, their importance, and provides step-by-step instructions on how to remotely force a GPUpdate on multiple computers.
What is Group Policy?
Group policy is a feature of Windows operating systems that enables centralized management and configuration of OS, applications, and user settings in an Active Directory environment. It allows administrators to define and enforce specific policies across multiple users and computers within an organization’s network.
Group policy settings are stored in Group Policy Objects (GPOs), which are linked to the Active Directory containers such as sites, domains, or organizational units. Through Group Policy, you can control security settings, deploy software, configure desktop environments, and manage user permissions. You can apply these policies to specific users or computers, primarily to ensure consistent configurations and adherence to organizational standards.
They are divided into two categories: Computer Configuration, which is applied to machines, and User Configuration, which applies to user accounts. Group Policy is set up in a hierarchy, which means that policies that are linked to higher-level containers are passed down to lower-level ones unless they are blocked or overridden.
To understand Group Policy’s implementation within your Windows infrastructure, let’s have a closer look at its three fundamental management components that form the backbone of enterprise configuration control:
Group Policy Objects (GPOs): Collections of settings that administrators use to define configurations for groups of users and computers. GPOs are linked to selected Active Directory containers: sites, domains, or organizational units.
Group Policy Management Console (GPMC): An MMC snap-in that provides a single administrative tool for managing Group Policy across the enterprise, including GPO creation, control, backup, and reporting.
Active Directory: A directory service developed by Microsoft for Windows domain networks that authenticates and authorizes users and computers in a Windows domain network.
What is a Group Policy Update?
A Group Policy Update refers to the process of refreshing and applying Group Policy settings to both computers and users in a Windows domain environment. This process retrieves the latest settings from a central location (domain controller) and applies them to the local system. By default, these settings refresh automatically according to a standard refresh interval of 90 minutes plus a randomized offset of up to 30 minutes.
The gpupdate.exe command-line utility enables administrators to force an immediate refresh, bypassing the standard interval. This utility provides flexible targeting options—you can choose to update computer policy settings or only the user policies separately.
Through specific command parameters, which we will explore in this article, you can process only the changes made since the last update or perform a complete policy refresh.
What is the Difference Between Group Policy Updates and Replacements?
Group Policy Updates are responsible for applying changes to policy settings through an incremental process. During an update, the system maintains existing policy settings while implementing new or modified settings and removing those no longer defined in the policy. This process ensures a smooth transition of policy changes without disrupting other active policies on the system.
Group Policy Replacements, in contrast, perform a complete overwrite of specific policy configurations on the targeted device. When a replacement occurs, it removes all previous settings within that policy’s scope and implements the new group policies from scratch. This method provides a clean slate for the specified policy area, ensuring no legacy system settings remain that might conflict with the new configuration.
Importance of Group Policy Updates
Group policy management is of massive importance in keeping your network secure, updated, and performing optimally while also adhering strictly to compliance requirements. GPUpdates deliver critical benefits such as:
- Improved Security Settings: Regular updates are enhancing the security posture of every single device in your organization’s network, ensuring that security settings, including password policies, firewalls, and access controls, align with the latest security standards.
- Configuration consistency: Up-to-date group policies ensure that all computers and users connected to your organization’s network are synchronized with the latest configurations and settings, establishing a standardized infrastructure environment with comprehensive governance controls.
- Implementing software updates in a timely manner: Group policy provides every system administrator not only with the ability to keep current and deploy the latest security policies but also to install software updates and patches, improving the overall functionality of your systems.
- Maintaining regulatory compliance: Regular updates guarantee your organization’s strict adherence to compliance requirements and the consistent enforcement of these policies throughout your entire network.
How to Force GPUpdate on Multiple Computers?
To force GPUpdate on multiple computers, follow these steps:
- Step 1. First, click on the Start menu and type Run in the search bar. Afterwards, you have to type gpmc.msc and press Enter.
- Step 2. Next, find the OU you need, right-click, and select Group Policy Update from the context menu.
- Step 3. Now, you will see the Force Group Policy Update window, in which you will be able to specify the number of objects to which the new settings will be applied immediately.
- Step 4. On the next screen, you will see the result of running the command.
Keep in mind that all command results can be saved to a CSV file. On computers where the GPO enforcement procedure was launched using this method, you can find event ID 1704 in the Windows logs.
How to Update Group Policy With Action1?
Another way to force a Group Policy Update is to use the Action1 cloud-based platform for unified remote endpoint management. It operates outside the local network and requires only agent installation (the process takes no more than 5 minutes) to set up and get going.
- Step 1. Sign up and get started with Action1. (You can use the software for up to 200 endpoints for free, with full feature access!) Read also: How to get started with Action1.
- Step 2. Log in to the Action1 console and select Managed Endpoints.
- Step 3. Select the endpoints on which you want to force a Group Policy Update from the displayed list. – Keep in mind that the endpoints will be automatically detected.
- Step 4. Press the More Actions button and select Run PowerShell in the list of actions.
- Step 5. Execute the gpupdate /force command and click Next Step in the window that appears.
- Step 6. In the next step, you can either add or remove endpoints.
- Step 7. Enter the name for the action, select the time to run the script, and click Finish.
As a result, the command will be executed to force the Group Policy Update on all endpoints that you selected.
How to Force User and Computer Group Policy Updates Manually?
When you need to force a group policy update manually, follow these steps:
- Step 1. Log on locally to a computer or server, right-click on the Start menu, and then go to Command Prompt (Admin) from the pop-up menu and click on it. Otherwise, type cmd (or copy and paste it) into the Windows search box and choose the cmd.exe icon if there is more than just one search result.
- Step 2. Run the gpupdate /force command.
- Step 3. In the Command Prompt window, type gpupdate/force and press Enter (in case you want to update all policies; this command ensures that these settings will be applied consistently). In other words, you literally force a Group Policy update. If you’re refreshing only the modified policies, run the gpupdate command.
Note that some settings only come into effect after the user logs out (or after the computer restarts).
How to Refresh Computer Group Policies Manually?
As you’ve probably noted, the above set of steps updates both Computer Group Policy and User Group Policy. However, if you need to refresh only the computer configuration (such as security settings, network configuration, or computer startup scripts), then there’s the gpupdate /target: computer command to run.
- Step 1. Open Command Prompt—left-click on the start menu, then in the search bar type cmd, then right-click and select Run as administrator.
- Step 2. Run the gpupdate /target: computer command.
- Step 3. In the Command Prompt window, type gpupdate /target: computer and press Enter to update only those computer settings (policies) that have been changed.
To update all computer policies, in place of the previous command, type gpupdate /target: computer /force and press Enter. If needed, you can delay computer policy updates through this command: “/wait {your value}.” Keep in mind that the default value is 600 seconds.
How to Check for User Group Policy Updates Manually?
If there are some user policy settings that should have been modified, you can run the “gpupdate /target:user /logoff” command to ensure that they are ready to be delivered.
- Step 1. Open Command Prompt from the Start menu, as we already showed you.
- Step 2. Run the gpupdate /target:user /logoff command.
- Step 3. Wait until you see the user policy update successfully.
This switch (logoff) command automatically ends the user session if a policy change requires the user to log off after the update is completed successfully. The new policy settings will take effect as soon as the user logs on.
Consider Using Action1 to Remotely Force Group Policy Updates Across Multiple Computers
The Action1 cloud-based solution can tremendously accelerate your IT tasks. In addition to forcing Group Policy updates for the computers outside the local network, the platform offers total control of patch management, OS and application upgrades distribution, software deployment, remote access, and many other features to run your IT security and management as seamlessly as possible. Action1 is free to use on up to 200 endpoints, and the installation process takes only 5 minutes!
