Mastering Windows Group Policy

Disabling GPO links

Instead of deleting GPO links, the option also exists to disable those GPO links. In most cases, this is a smarter approach. Perhaps you run into a case where an existing GPO is pushing some settings into place, and you now have a need to adjust those settings. You could delete all of the GPO links to make sure it is no longer applying to your computers, then modify and test the GPO, and then re-link it to all of the locations. But what if you forget where they are linked? I hope you documented them all.

Instead, we can simply right-click on a GPO link and uncheck the option for Link Enabled. As expected, this sets the link into a Disabled state, so the GPO will no longer apply to that linked location. Later, when you ...