Default Settings May Not Propagate to Computers/Users Added in Poledit.exe

When you change a Default Computer or Default User setting in System Policy Editor (Poledit.exe), the changes may not propagate to some computers or users.

In the main program window, computers and users are visually sorted according to the sorting rules for the current language settings.

Computers and users that are listed before Default Computer or Default User do not receive the changes. Changes are applied to the computers and users that are listed after Default Computer and Default User.

For example, if the computers that are named Alpha and Foxtrot currently have have the Logon policy Don't show last user at logon setting unavailable and you click to select the Default Computer setting for this policy, Foxtrot's policy is selected but Alpha's is not after you save and reopen the policy file. Alpha's policy should also be selected.

This problem can occur if you add a computer or user to a new policy file that has not been saved to disk at least once. The problem also occurs if you delete Default Computer or Default User, save the file to disk, and then add Default Computer or Default User at a later time.

To prevent this problem from occurring when you are creating a new policy file, make sure that a policy file of the same name does not already exist, save the new policy file, and then add computers and users.

1. On the File menu, click New Policy.
2. Click Save As, and then type a file name that does not already exist.
3. Add computers and users normally.

If this problem exists with an existing policy file that already has computers and users listed before Default User or Default Computer, follow these steps:

1. Start two instances of System Policy Editor, and then load the same policy file from the local disk location.
2. In the first instance, delete all computers and users that are listed before Default Computer or Default User.
3. In the first instance, click Save on the File menu, and then click Exit on the File menu.
4. In the second instance, click Save on the File menu, and then click Exit on the File menu.
5. Restart System Policy Editor, and then load your policy file. The Default Computer and Default Users settings propagate properly.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.