we built a plain Windows 2008 Server park a few months back, and set up a few Group Policies. Most of them seem to work fine, but once in a while I have the feeling that one or more have not been applied.
Take for instance the Group Policy that logs of people from our Terminal Server who have been idle for more than 12 hours. I've received numerous reports that people are NOT kicked out, even though I know it has worked at some time.
Also the policy that adjusts how many days in advance a user should be notified that its time to change a password doesn't seem to have been applied at all.
I know about "gpupdate /force", and it has been weeks since we've altered the group policies so the problem isn't just a replication problem.
How can I check a specific machine for a list of the group policies applied? Are there any tools that makes working with Group Policies easier? Any tips when working with GPs?
Run mmc.exe on the computer you suspect and add the Resultant Set of Policy snapin. The RSOP works through all the policies, tells what settings are in effect and which Group Policy specified them. It's massively useful for checking GP problems.
John Rennie
I believe gpresult will tell you what specific policies have been applied to your machine, as well as give you information about GPO groups you're in, errors and such.
Here's a link for it: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc733160(WS.10).aspx