How to refresh the Group Policy Settings on remote computers

The Group Policy Settings are refreshed as per the interval configured in the Group Policy for client computers, member servers and domain controllers. You can use the following command line tools to refresh the Group Policy Settings on remote computer. You need to log on to the computer manually and then perform the action suggested below:
 
For Windows XP computers:
 
Gpupdate.exe /Target:User /force
Gpupdate.exe /Target:Computer /force
 
For Windows 2000
           
            Secedit.exe /refreshpolicy user_policy
            Secedit.exe /refreshpolicy machine_policy
 
To refresh the policy on remote computer or computers you can use the following script to do so:
 

1. Create a ComputerList.txt
2. Put all the remote computers in the Text file.
3. Use the Psexec.exe tool to execute the command remotely.

 
For Windows XP Computers:
 
Psexec.exe -@ComputerList.txt Gpupdate.exe /Target:User /force
Psexec.exe -@ComputerList.txt Gpupdate.exe /Target:Computer /force
 
For Windows 2000 Computers:
 
Psexec.exe -@ComputerList.txt secedit.exe /refreshpolicy user_policy
Psexec.exe -@ComputerList.txt secedit.exe /refreshpolicy machine_policy
 
The above Psexec.exe command will run on all the computers specified in the ComputerList.txt.
 
You can also use the following script to check the version of Operating System and then issue the command:
 
@echo off
 
XPGPORef1=gpupdate.exe /Target:User /force
XPGPORef2=gpupdate.exe /Target:Computer /force
 
Win2kGPORef1=secedit.exe /refreshpolicy user_policy
Win2kGPORef2=secedit.exe /refreshpolicy machine_policy
 
For /f “Tokens=*” %%a in (ComputerList.txt) Do (
 
SET Comp_name=%%a
 
Ver.exe \\%comp_name% > Hostver.txt
 
Find /I “XP” < Hostver.txt > CheckCC.txt
 
IF %errorlevel% == 0 (
 
Psexec.exe \\%comp_name% Gpupdate.exe /Target:User /force
Psexec.exe \\%comp_name% Gpupdate.exe /Target:Computer /force
 
) ELSE (
 
Psexec.exe \\%comp_name% secedit.exe /refreshpolicy user_policy
Psexec.exe \\%comp_name% secedit.exe /refreshpolicy machine_policy
)
 
The above script will check the Operating System version by executing Ver.exe on remote computer and then run the appropriate commands to refresh the Group Policy Objects.