Managing Group Policies With GPUpdate Utility In Windows 2008 Core

The Group Policy Update (GPUpdate) utility lets you update the group policies on a computer. Use this utility as a replacement for the now obsolete /refreshpolicy command line switch for the SecEdit utility. 

Using this utility ensures that essential group policy changes appear on a computer, especially systems that are on 24 hours per day.  

This utility uses the following syntax:

GPUpdate [/Target:{Computer | User}] [/Force] [/Wait:] [/Logoff] [/Boot] [/Sync]

The following list describes each of the command line arguments. 

/Target:{Computer | User} Specifies that the utility updates only user or computer policy settings. The default is to refresh both user and computer policy settings.

/Force Reapplies all policy settings, even those that haven’t changed. Normally, the utility only applies new settings. This command line switch ensures that the system has all of the current policies, even if a policy was accidentally changed.

/Wait:value Determines the number of seconds the utility waits for policy processing to finish. The default setting is 600 seconds. You can cause the utility to end immediately by using a value of 0. A value of –1 forces the utility to wait indefinitely for the policy processing to complete. 

Use the –1 option when you want to ensure the policies are in place before rebooting the system. Policy processing continues in the background even if the utility ends.

/Logoff Forces the system to log off after the utility finishes refreshing the system policies.  Using this option ensures the user sees the new policy settings. You must use this feature to install client-side extension policies that don’t refresh in the background, but do refresh when the user logs in. 

For example, you’ll need to use this technique for software installation and folder redirection policies. The utility ignores the command line switch when there aren’t any policies that require a logoff to implement.

/Boot Forces a reboot for situations similar to the /Logoff command line switch. However,
this command line switch affects those policy updates that require a reboot, rather than a simple logoff. As with the /Logoff command line switch, the utility ignores this command line switch when there aren’t any policies that require a reboot.

/Sync Performs the next foreground policy application synchronously (possibly reducing the
update time required for group policies). Foreground policy applications occur at computer boot and during user logon. You can specify this command line switch with the /Target command line switch to synchronize updates for just the user or just the computer policies. 

Note: When you use this command line switch, it ignores the /Force and /Wait command line switches.