ll popular Windows 10 editions above Home (specifically, Pro and Pro for Workstations, Enterprise, Education, etc.) have 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. In this article, we are going to show how to force GPUpdate on multiple computers.
Next, find the OU you need, right-click and select “Group Policy Update” from the context menu.
You will see the “Force Group Policy update” window, in which you will see the number of objects to which the action will be applied.
On the next screen, you will see the result of running the command.
All command results can be saved to CSV file.
On computers where the GPO enforcement procedure was launched using this method, you can find event ID 1704 in the Windows logs
Read also: How to Auto Install Exe File with GPO on Windows Systems
How to Update Group Policy With GPMC
Another way to force Group Policy Update is to use Action1 cloud-based platform for unified remote endpoint management. It operates outside local network and requires only agent installation to set up and get going.
1. Sign up and get started with Action1 for free.
Read also: How to get started with Action1.
2. Log in to the Action1 console and select Managed Endpoints.
3. Select the endpoints on which you want to force Group Policy Update from the displayed list
4. Press More Actions button and select Run PowerShell in the list of action
5. Enter the gpupdate /force command and click Next Step in the window that appears
6. In the next step you can either add or remove Endpoints. After that proceed to the Next 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
1. Open Command Prompt
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 are more than just one search result.
2. Run the gpupdate /force command
In the Command Prompt window, type gpupdate /force and press Enter (in case you want to update all policies. 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 logging out (or after restarting if the system requires).
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 Computer Group Policy settings, then there’s the gpupdate /target: computer command to run (the gpupdate /target: user command for a User Group Policy update).
1. Open Command Prompt
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 are more than just one search result.
2. Run the gpupdate /target: computer command
In the Command Prompt window, type gpupdate /target: computer and press Enter to update only those computer policies that have been changed.
To update all computer policies, in place of the previous command, type gpupdate /target: computer /force and press Enter. There is still an interesting key, it is to delay /Wait:{your value}. 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.
1. Open Command Prompt
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 are more than just one search result.
2. Run the gpupdate /target:user /logoff command
This command automatically ends the user session after the update is completed. As soon as the user registers into the system back, he or she will notice the changes made.
Consider Using Action1 Solution
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.
