How to refresh the Group Policy Settings on remote computers

The Group Policy Settings are refreshed as per the interval configured in the Group Policy for client computers, member servers and domain controllers. You can use the following command line tools to refresh the Group Policy Settings on remote computer. You need to log on to the computer manually and then perform the action suggested below:

For Windows XP computers:

·          Gpupdate.exe /Target:User /force

·          Gpupdate.exe /Target:Computer /force

For Windows 2000 computers:

·          Secedit.exe /refreshpolicy user_policy

·          Secedit.exe /refreshpolicy machine_policy

To refresh the policy on remote computer or computers you can use the following script to do so:

1.      Create a ComputerList.txt

2.      Put all the remote computers in the Text file.

3.      Use the Psexec.exe tool to execute the command remotely.

For Windows XP Computers:

Psexec.exe -@ComputerList.txt Gpupdate.exe /Target:User /force

Psexec.exe -@ComputerList.txt Gpupdate.exe /Target:Computer /force

For Windows 2000 Computers:

Psexec.exe -@ComputerList.txt secedit.exe /refreshpolicy user_policy

Psexec.exe -@ComputerList.txt secedit.exe /refreshpolicy machine_policy

The above Psexec.exe command will run on all the computers specified in the ComputerList.txt.

You can also use the following script to check the version of Operating System and then issue the command:

@echo off

XPGPORef1=gpupdate.exe /Target:User /force

XPGPORef2=gpupdate.exe /Target:Computer /force

Win2kGPORef1=secedit.exe /refreshpolicy user_policy

Win2kGPORef2=secedit.exe /refreshpolicy machine_policy

For /f “Tokens=*” %%a in (ComputerList.txt) Do (

SET Comp_name=%%a

Ver.exe \\%comp_name% > Hostver.txt

Find /I “XP” < Hostver.txt > CheckCC.txt

IF %errorlevel% == 0 (

Psexec.exe \\%comp_name% Gpupdate.exe /Target:User /force

Psexec.exe \\%comp_name% Gpupdate.exe /Target:Computer /force

) ELSE (

Psexec.exe \\%comp_name% secedit.exe /refreshpolicy user_policy

Psexec.exe \\%comp_name% secedit.exe /refreshpolicy machine_policy

)

)