Active Directory Cookbook

9.3. Copying a GPO

Problem

You want to copy the properties and settings of a GPO to another GPO.

Solution

Using a graphical user interface

1. Open the GPMC snap-in.

2. In the left pane, expand the Forest container, expand the Domains container, browse to the domain of the source GPO, and expand the Group Policy Objects container.

3. Right-click on the source GPO and select Copy.

4. Right-click on the Group Policy Objects container and select Paste.

5. Select whether you want to use the default permissions or preserve the existing permissions, and click OK.

6. A status window will pop up that will indicate whether the copy was successful. Click OK to close.

7. Rename the new GPO by right-clicking it in the left pane and selecting Rename.

Using a command-line interface

> copygpo.wsf <SourceGPOName> <TargetGPOName>

Using VBScript

' This code copies a source GPO to a new GPO
' ------ SCRIPT CONFIGURATION ------
strSourceGPO  = "<SourceGPOName>"  ' e.g. SalesGPO
strNewGPO     = "<NewGPOName>"     ' e.g. Marketing GPO
strDomain     = "<DomainDNSName>" ' e.g. rallencorp.com ' ------ END CONFIGURATION --------- set objGPM = CreateObject("GPMgmt.GPM") set objGPMConstants = objGPM.GetConstants( ) ' Initialize the Domain object set objGPMDomain = objGPM.GetDomain(strDomain, "", objGPMConstants.UseAnyDC) ' Find the source GPO set objGPMSearchCriteria = objGPM.CreateSearchCriteria objGPMSearchCriteria.Add objGPMConstants.SearchPropertyGPODisplayName, _ objGPMConstants.SearchOpEquals, cstr(strSourceGPO) set objGPOList = objGPMDomain.SearchGPOs(objGPMSearchCriteria) ...