Resultant Set of Policy (RSoP)

On www.Windows7Library.com you will find many articles citing Local Group Policy features. Remember, that this blog is about Windows 7 in a standalone or a small setup of networked computers. However, you will find some references to Active Directory and Group Policy in general. As you may already know, there is a precedence of how Group Policy is applied within Windows environments. In such environments there can be a GPO linked to a site, a domain, and organizational units in AD, and the precedence is summarized by LSDOU (Local machines, Sites, Domains and Organizational Units). Local Group Policy Objects (GPO) has the weakest precedence, site linked GPOs are next, domain linked GPOs are next, with Organizational Unit (OU) linked GPOs having the highest precedence.

If for instance, you have performed some Local Group Policy settings and your computer is part of a Windows domain then these may not function! The precedence mentioned above must be evaluated for every setting, and you can use the RSOP.msc (Resultant Set of Policies) snap-in on your computer to verify which setting “won” and from which GPO it came from. Local Group Policy Editor and the Resultant Set of Policy snap-in are available in Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 Professional, Windows 7 Ultimate, and Windows 7 Enterprise.

To start the Resultant Set of Policy (RSoP) snap-in, in the Start search text box type rsop.msc and press enter.