GpUpdate Who Knew?

[chazzy2501]

I've been using group policy for over a decade and didn't know this was built in to group policy..

 

 

Years of rebooting PCs, logging in and doing a manual update like a buttt.

[DJ-1701]

Yes, but it does make a command prompt window pop up on the screen, which people might just X out of.

[Davit2005]

There is also a method of finding what GPO are applied to a machine locally in a html format.

 

gpresult /h c:\FOLDERPATH\FILE.html

[Koldov]

I've been using group policy for over a decade and didn't know this was built in to group policy..

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]59339[/ATTACH]

 

Years of rebooting PCs, logging in and doing a manual update like a buttt.

 

Worse than that...

 

As you didn't post any instructions I thought I would poke around to see if I could do it.

 

I spent a good 10 minutes clicking all sorts of things in the GPMC and didn't find anything that would do it...

 

So I Googled it:

 

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/it-pro/windows-server-2012-r2-and-2012/jj134201(v=ws.11)

 

I got about halfway down and it just said "Right-click the selected OU, and click Group Policy Update…", so I went back to the server and right-clicked and THERE IT WAS!!!!

 

You know, I'm pretty sure it wasn't there before I read that article...

 

I wonder if there's a name for that phenomenon...?

 

Apart from Blindsysadminitis...

Edited October 7, 2020 by Koldov

[mavhc]

Awesome, never knew that, never thought of right clicking an OU

[fiza]

I didn't know about this but then I have been using SpecOps GPUpdate in AD for years that does this. https://specopssoft.com/product/specops-gpupdate/

SpecOps can start and shutdown PCs via AD as well.

[Koldov]

Really @mavhc ?

 

I have hundreds of times!

 

How do you do things like add a GPO to an OU?

 

Action menu?

 

Edit: My word, it's even in there!

Edited October 7, 2020 by Koldov

[DJ-1701]

Really @mavhc ?

 

I have hundreds of times!

 

How do you do things like add a GPO to an OU?

 

Action menu?

 

Edit: My word! It's even in there!!

 

I will point you to @mavhc signature.

[jthompson]

Add me to the list of blind IT admins.

 

It's a shame that it only works for computers and not users, although I get why.

[DrBeaker]

Wasn't it new to server 2008 or an add-on if I remember?

[mavhc]

Really @mavhc ?

 

I have hundreds of times!

 

How do you do things like add a GPO to an OU?

 

Action menu?

 

Edit: My word, it's even in there!

 

I mean to update the remote computers, so I'd never read the whole menu

[Koldov]

No, it seems like a lot of people (including me) haven't...

 

I don't think I've ever looked past the add/link gpo in the first couple of lines!

 

When I think of all the posts and articles that say ' open a cmd prompt on the computer and then run gpupdate'...

[chazzy2501]

So you're telling me it's been there for 12 years and I only just noticed.... well at least I know I'm not the only admin to waste many hours not knowing.

 

Is this the berenstain bears paradox? Because I've right clicked for years and never seen it, I swear I wake up in slightly alternate realities sometimes.

[witch]

So you're telling me it's been there for 12 years and I only just noticed.... well at least I know I'm not the only admin to waste many hours not knowing.

 

Is this the berenstain bears paradox? Because I've right clicked for years and never seen it, I swear I wake up in slightly alternate realities sometimes.

 

I hadn't seen it either.

 

This phenomenon where things only appear after you've been told about them I am going to call the Topic Reality Paradox

[leegcvcc]

Nor me! Good one!

[jthompson]

There is also a method of finding what GPO are applied to a machine locally in a html format.

 

gpresult /h c:\FOLDERPATH\FILE.html

 

I've used that quite a lot when troubleshooting on a client, although you can streamline it a bit by having the command also open the results for you...

 

gpresult -h gpres.htm && gpres.htm

[chazzy2501]

I've used that quite a lot when troubleshooting on a client, although you can streamline it a bit by having the command also open the results for you...

 

gpresult -h gpres.htm && gpres.htm

 

Well you can do all this from the Group policy Window anyhow so no need to visit the machine. You can run "group policy results" to show expected outcome and "group policy modeling" to show actual results (like the html output) without leaving the office.

 

 

here you can see me running a pupil test user or a member of staff on a various PCs. On the Modeling I was asking for the results of just machine GPOs on the computer ELC. I found that the computer wasn't applying a GPO because of a wmi rejection. (computer was missing from a security group)

 

All done from my desk. (the remote PC has to be on)

[chazzy2501]

here is what it look like on another PC (as it has to be on) This laptop is called FXM and I only wanted the machine results.

 

[jthompson]

Ah, okay, so are those results generated by the client machine then, or just by the server? It's those occasions where you want to know what a client is actually doing, rather than just what it should be doing.

[chazzy2501]

yes, by the client. (which is why it has to be on )

[DJ-1701]

To be honest, I find it easier to provide the user with a shortcut called Refresh Settings which triggers C:\Windows\System32\gpupdate.exe /Force /Wait:0 that way they know what the box is that appears, it doesn't stick around for too long, and when someone has an issue with missing printers or mapped drives, it's easier to tell them to refresh settings and see if that works.

[mavhc]

Main problem with viewing in GP is no ctrl-f, so I end up exporting to html anyway to search

[DJ-1701]

Main problem with viewing in GP is no ctrl-f, so I end up exporting to html anyway to search

 

You can Ctrl-F, it's just a little buggy at times and might take reloading the details and clicking inside it.

[sonofsanta]

I hadn't seen it either.

 

This phenomenon where things only appear after you've been told about them I am going to call the Topic Reality Paradox

 

 

Is that because you can tell me there's a Topic waiting my mini-fridge and once you have I can open it and look and have a Topic?

 

I knew your witchy powers were mighty, but this elevates you to the level of godhood in my eyes

 

(Add me to the "never noticed that" in AD, though like @fiza we've always had SpecOps installed anyway)

[howartp]

RM used GP modelling/results down the bottom of Group Policy Management Console last month.

 

I had still been stuck using RSOP on clients.