Well, we’ve made it through the debug logs for normal mode and merge mode and now it is on to replace mode and time to answer our original question, “In replace mode, when does the user configuration portion of policies which apply to the computer object get applied.  Is it applied when the computer starts up?  Or is it applied when a user logs on?” This post is part 3 of a 3 part series where we are examining the debug output for each policy processing mode: Loopback Policy Proce... [More]

This post is part 2 of a 3 part series where we are examining the debug output for each policy processing mode: Loopback Policy Processing Debug Series – Normal Mode Loopback Policy Processing Debug Series – Merge Mode Loopback Policy Processing Debug Series – Replace Mode In our last post, we reviewed the UserEnv log to see how policy is applied to workstations and users under normal circumstances.  In normal mode, processing of workstation group policy restricts itself to t... [More]

When it rains it pours I suppose.  Just after I dropped the last loopback policy processing post, I got an email from another friend at Microsoft asking about how replace mode actually works.  What he wanted to know exactly was when does the user configuration portion of policies which apply to the computer object get applied.  Is it applied when the computer starts up?  Or is it applied when a user logs on? It’s a fair question.  The loopback policy setting is ... [More]

  I wanted to follow-up on a previous post and respond to a newsgroup post with this loopback policy processing model. I am taking the inspiration for this from the newsgroup post though there is some deviation for the sake of the illustration.  Okay, let’s go. In our globally-applied Default Domain Policy, a screen saver timeout is set to 30 minutes. Right now, this is the only screen saver timeout policy in the domain. This policy setting exists in the User Configuration portion of... [More]