Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista : Working with GPOs - Group Policy Results

Group Policy Results is a built-in utility that allows an administrator to view the settings for a specific user or computer, as well as for any object located in a specific organizational unit. The tool is built directly into the GPMC and models what the RSoP tool does locally on a computer.

To generate a report of the results, you must enter some information into a simple wizard. To generate a report, follow these steps:

1.	In the GPMC, right-click the Group Policy Results node, and then click Group Policy Results Wizard.
2.	On the Welcome to the Group Policy Results Wizard page, click Next.
3.	On the Computer Selection page, choose the computer, if any, for which you want to generate a report, and then click Next. You can use the current computer or browse Active Directory directory service for a different computer. If you do not want to see any computer-related information in the report, select the Do Not Display Policy Settings For The Selected Computer In The Results (Display User Policy Settings Only) check box.
4.	On the User Selection page, choose the user, if any, for whom you want to generate a report, and then click Next. You can use the current user or choose a user account from the list of users that have logged on to the computer before. If you do not want to see any user-related information in the report, select the Do Not Display User Policy Settings In The Results (Display Computer Policy Settings Only) check box.
5.	On the Summary of Selections page, review your choices, and then click Next.
6.	On the Completing the Group Policy Results Wizard page, click Finish to complete the Group Policy Results Wizard.

Results Pane for Group Policy Results

After you generate a report to see the Group Policy settings that will apply to a user or user/computer combination, you can see the results in the right pane. Each report that you generate will appear in the Group Policy Results node in the GPMC, and each will have three tabs that appear when you click them: Summary, Settings, and Policy Events.

Summary

The Summary tab displays all of the essential information that you will need regarding the objects that were selected, the location of the objects, and the GPOs that affected them, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. The Summary tab for Group Policy Results provides information regarding both the user and computer objects that were included in the report.

The important sections of this tab include the following:

• Computer Configuration Summary

  • General

  • Group Policy Objects

  • Security Group Membership when Group Policy was applied

  • WMI Filters

  • Component Status

• User Configuration Summary

  • General

  • Group Policy Objects

  • Security Group Membership when Group Policy was applied

  • WMI Filters

  • Component Status

Settings

The Settings tab is similar to the Settings tab that you read about earlier. This tab is for the GPOs that affected the user and computer that were specified in the generation of the report.

Policy Events

The Policy Events tab displays all of the Group Policy–related events that result from events generated by the system. This list is a summary of all of the Event Viewer events that Group Policy generates. SceCli and Group Policy are the primary events that you will see, as shown in Figure 2. 

Figure 2. The Policy Events tab summarizes all of the events related to the computer and user that were used in the Group Policy Results report.

Controlling Results of Group Policy Reports

After you generate a report using Group Policy Reports, you have some advanced options for working with the results. The options are not advanced, but they do allow you to keep the results fresh and updated. Three options are available when you right-click the result under the Group Policy Results node.

Advanced View

This option displays the results in the traditional RSoP format, which organizes the settings like they are in the GPME, as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3. The Advanced view of Group Policy Results displays the settings in the traditional format, as in the GPME.

Rerun Query

You have the option to rerun the query, in case the user or computer object moves from one organizational unit to another. This option is available so you can keep the report and results up to date for troubleshooting purposes.

Save Report

This option allows you to document the output of the report. This is very similar to saving reports for a GPO. When you save a report, you need only specify the name of the file, the format of the file (HTML or XML), and the location where you want to save the file, as shown in Figure 4. The default location for the file is the Documents folder for the user who is generating the report.

Figure 4. You can save a report for the output of each of the Group Policy Results that you generate.