Registry Tip #53: Modify the Default Group Policy Refresh Interval |
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To avoid the performance degradation that would occur if many workstations and/or member server request a group policy refresh simultaneously, a random offset interval is added to the refresh interval to determine the total amount of time between group policy application cycles. The valid range for the offset interval is 0 to 1440 minutes (24 hours). The default offset interval for W2K workstations and member servers is 30 minutes, while the default for domain controllers is 0 minutes.
There are computer and user group policies. There are computer and user group policy intervals for background refresh. These registry values can be disabled or modified locally but remember that local registry settings can be overridden by a GPO in Active Directory.
To control the refresh interval for W2K workstations/member server computer group policies:
Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key: Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System
Name: GroupPolicyRefreshTime
Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 0 - 64800 minutes
To control the offset interval for W2K workstations/member servers computer group policies:
Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key: Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System
Name: GroupPolicyRefreshTimeOffset
Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 0 - 1440 minutes
To control the refresh interval for domain controllers:
Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key: Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System
Name: GroupPolicyRefreshTimeDC
Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 0 - 64800 minutes
To change the offset interval for domain controllers:
Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key: Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System
Name: GroupPolicyRefreshTimeOffsetDC
Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 0 - 1440 minutes
To change the refresh interval for user policies:
Hive: HKEY_CURRENT_USER
Key: Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System
Name: GroupPolicyRefreshTime
Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 0 - 64800 minutes
To change the offset interval for user policies:
Hive: HKEY_CURRENT_USER
Key: Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System
Name: GroupPolicyRefreshTimeOffset
Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 0 - 1440 minutes
If you would rather not modify the registry directly, you can use the MMC console. To control the Refresh and Offset Intervals:
Using a Group Policy Object (GPO) to Change the Behavior of Multiple Computers :
If you are an administrator or workstation support and want to insure that the box you are working on has current group policies applied, you can immediately enforce them using the secedit command:
secedit /refreshpolicy machine_policy /enforce
secedit /refreshpolicy user_policy /enforce
Keywords: Windows 2000 Registry Tip, Windows XP, computer, user, group policies, windows 2000 domain, group policy refresh interval, GroupPolicyRefreshTime, GroupPolicyRefreshTimeOffset, GPO, group policy object