NEW!!!! PowerShell version of this utility available at SDM Software Freeware Page

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This is a command line utility to remotely refresh Group Policy on Win2K, XP or Server 2003.

The utility auto-detects the target OS version and applies the appropriate options. NOTE: You need the .Net Framework 1.1 installed on the machine where you run this utility from. The following screen shot gives you an idea of the command-line options available, which mirror what are available in the native tools that come with Win2K, XP and 2003. Please let me know if you find any bugs. I tested on all 3 OS’ but your mileage may vary.
Also, there’s a good article on refreshing Group Policy remotely, along with a tool that lets you use rgprefresh against multiple computers, written by Jakob Heidelberg, here

Release History
Version 1.6 (current): Adds a new /n parameter that lets you specify that you don’t want to trigger a reboot or logoff (added in 1.5) when using the /force /sync or /boot parameters and gpupdate would normally require a reboot or logoff to force a synchronous processing event. Also adds some additional debugging information in the event that the refresh fails.

Download: rgprefresh16.zip — 4.8KB

Version 1.5: In this version, the tool will automatically logoff or reboot a target XP or Server 2003 system if required by Group Policy. This is different than 1.0, which did not perform this reboot or logoff task as it should have. This version also fixes some other bugs, including a “parameter is incorrect” error when connecting to a remote system without specifying credentials.

Download: rgprefresh15.zip — 4.7KB

Version 1.0 (original): This is the first version of the tool and provided for remote refresh of Group Policy on XP, Server 2003 and Windows 2000 systems.

Download: rgprefresh.zip (currently UNAVAILABLE) — 4.4KB

Screen Shot of Version 1.6

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