Need to know what policies are applied in Windows? Here’s a simple way to see all the applied group policies in Group Policy Editor.
The built-in Group Policy Editor in Windows allows you to quickly apply system-wide or user-specific policies and features with just a few clicks. In fact, many Windows tutorials you find here or somewhere else often require you to edit the Group Policy Objects.
If you are like me who changes a lot of policies to make Windows work the way you want it to, keeping tracking of all those policy changes is important. This is especially true of new users. Mainly because, if something goes wrong with a policy change, finding that policy quickly helps you restore the system. Not to mention, having a quick look at all the applied or changed policies help you understand the system configuration.
So, in this quick article, let me show the ways to find all the applied group policies in Windows.
Jump to:
- Resultant Set of Policy tool
- GPEdit filter options
1] Use Resultant Set of Policy Tool
Windows has a built-in tool called the Resultant Set of Policy. This tool only shows the policies that are Enabled or Disabled. Since all the applied or changed policies will be in one of these two states, you can use this simple tool to find the applied group policies.
1. First, open the Start menu, search for “rsop.msc” and click on the result. Alternatively, open the Run dialog box with Win + R keyboard shortcut, type “rsop.msc” and press Enter.
2. As soon as you do that, the Resultant Set of Policy tool will open. It will immediately scan your system. It can take a couple of seconds.
3. Once that is done, you can see all the applied policies by expanding the folders on the left panel.
That is all. It is that simple. You have all the information you need about the applied policies in a single tool. Which is simply great.
2] Use Filter Options in GPEdit to Find Applied Policies
As an alternative, you can also use the filter functionality in the Group Policy Editor. The only downside of this method is that you have to individually filter all three major folders. i.e, Software Settings, Windows Settings, and Administrative Templates appearing under both Computer Configuration and User Configuration sections. That being said, most useful and user-configurable policies are under the Administrative Templates. So, it is not that hard.
1. First, open the Start menu, search for “Edit Group Policy” and click on the result to open the Group Policy Editor.
2. In the Group Policy Editor, right-click on a folder appearing on the left panel and select the “Filter Options” option.
3. In the Filter Options window, set the options under “Select the type of policy settings to display” as follows and click on the “Ok” button to save changes.
- Managed → Yes
- Configured → Yes
- Commented → Any
That is it. From now on, the Group Policy Editor will only show the enabled and disabled policies.
To disable the filter and get back to normal view, you need toggle the filter. To do that, right-click on any folder and select the “Filter On” option to “Uncheck” it. Since you’ve already configured the filter, you can simply toggle the filter to see applied group policies in Windows.
I hope that helps. If you are stuck or need some help, comment below and I will try to help as much as possible. If you like this article, do check out how to back up group policy settings in Windows.
