Share Group Policy between Workgroup

liamread2000

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I would like to set group policy to different computers in a workgroup. I would like to host the files on a network drive then after around 15 minutes of login to sync the group policy with the one on the server using a bat.
For example The group policy files are stored "\\SERVER\GroupPolicy" and it copies the files to "C:\Windows\System32\GroupPolicy" but ignores if the one on the computer is already the current one.


Sorry I'm not very good at explaining, would this work?

Thanks in advance,
Liam
 
Solution
It sounds like you are trying to reinvent what Active Directory in Windows Server does. If the server OS and CALs are too expensive for you, you might look into Server Essentials 2012 R2. There are also some free open source Active Directory replacements built on Samba 4 that could work for you. I think one is called Zentyal. Setting up one of these would be much simpler and would have the benefit that anyone trying to figure out your system later would have a much easier time.
It sounds like you are trying to reinvent what Active Directory in Windows Server does. If the server OS and CALs are too expensive for you, you might look into Server Essentials 2012 R2. There are also some free open source Active Directory replacements built on Samba 4 that could work for you. I think one is called Zentyal. Setting up one of these would be much simpler and would have the benefit that anyone trying to figure out your system later would have a much easier time.
 
Solution

liamread2000

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[

Hello,

Thanks for your reply.

I cant keep a computer on 24/7 this why I would like it to send it from a network drive to the local group policy. Is there anyway to make it work in something that does not require any thing other than the network drive go be on 24/?

Thanks ever so much again.

Kind regards,
Liam
 
What are you trying to set on the computers and why do you need to keep setting it once it's set? Does it change often? How many computers are you talking about? You can put in a simple xcopy command into the Startup menu to copy the group policy files so when the user logs on to their account it copies the files over. Not sure why you need to wait to do that.
 

liamread2000

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Hello thanks,

Could you please give an example to copy the entire group policy if its newer but ignore gpt.ini ?

1. I don't always plan to keep changing it but its useful if I need to for example add a managed bookmark for Google chrome via GP and changing desktop wallpaper. And when I reset pcs it would be better to have it automatically done instead of an extra step.

2. Its not many computers (10) however some I can not always access straight away.

And also its connected to a Workgroup.

Sorry I'm such a pain,
Liam

 
Without manual steps, what you are doing really needs an active directory and server setup.

To copy the folder over just don't add in the gpt.ini file in the xcopy command, just copy the Machine one.
It will be pretty fast to copy the files over even if they are the same.

xcopy \\server\policy\GroupPolicy\Machine C:\Windows\System32\GroupPolicy\ /q /h /y will copy the files without a prompt and will copy hidden and system files which that directory is.
 

liamread2000

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Okay,

I will have to look at getting an AD. But for now I will use this, however it says C:\Windows\System32\GroupPolicy\ is an invalid path even though I can access the link but it works say if I use a different path for example C:\Test it copies and I do run as a admin and that does not help so is there anything to put in the xcopy or would robocopy work?

Thanks once again
 

liamread2000

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Would it work if I swapped xcopy with robocopy or are the arguments different?

Thanks

 


Not sure, both command are well documented though, you can look them up. You want the silent switch and the one that copies hidden and system files. I also like to use the resume on error one but that can hide issues in cases where it can't copy a file for some reason. And set the retry to copy if failed to no more than 2 or 3, or the script will hang up the system for a while if there is an issue.

 

liamread2000

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I managed to do it with this "ROBOCOPY \\SERVER\GroupPolicy\ C:\Windows\System32\GroupPolicy *.* /E /SEC /DCOPY:T /COPYALL /Z /XO /COPYALL /IS"

How could I make it skip the file if the date modified are the same as the ones being copied?

Thanks again
 

liamread2000

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I used the robocopy code and it seems it worked apart from the laptop saying "Error 50 (0X00000032) Copying NTFS Security to Destination. "The request is not supported" Why is this?

Thanks
 


Are both computers the same operating system and file system? This can happen if you try to copy a setting that does not exist on the other computer, say copying NTFS rights to a FAT32 partition.
 

liamread2000

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They are both Windows 7 Professional X64 500GB HDD.

How ever ones a laptop and ones a computer. The laptop is the one that says it.

Thanks