Active Directory–based Group Policy update [Windows server 2003]

The gpupdate command refreshes local and Active Directory–based Group Policy settings, including security settings on the computer from where it is run. You can use gpupdate locally on Windows Server and higher computers to refresh policy immediately. On computers running Windows 2000, this functionality is provided by the using the secedit command with the refreshpolicy option.

Syntax

Gpupdate [/target:{computer|user}] [/force] [/wait:value] [/logoff] [/boot]

Parameters

/target:{computer|user}

Processes only the computer settings or the current user settings. By default, both the computer settings and the user settings are processed.

/force

Ignores all processing optimizations and reapplies all settings. The Group Policy engine on the client tracks versions of the GPOs that are applied to the user and computer. By default, if none of the GPO versions change and the list of GPOs remains the same, the Group Policy engine will not reprocess policy. This option overrides this optimization and forces the Group Policy engine to reprocess all policy information.

 

/wait:value

Number of seconds that policy processing waits to finish. The default is 600 seconds. 0 means "no wait"; -1 means "wait indefinitely."

/logoff

Logs off after the refresh has completed. This is required for those Group Policy client-side extensions that do not process on a background refresh cycle but that do process when the user logs on, such as user Software Installation and Folder Redirection. This option has no effect if there are no extensions called that require the user to log off.

/boot

Restarts the computer after the refresh has completed. This is required for those Group Policy client-side extensions that do not process on a background refresh cycle but that do process when the computer starts up, such as computer Software Installation. This option has no effect if there are no extensions called that require the computer to be restarted.

/?

Displays help at the command prompt.

Remarks

• If you make a syntax error, a syntax summary appears that looks similar to this Help topic.
  

Examples

The following examples show how you can use the gpupdate command:

• gpupdate
  
• gpupdate /target:computer
  
• gpupdate /force /wait:100
  
• gpupdate /boot