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We have several GPOs containing many settings that have accumluated over time. I have spot-checked some of them and stumbled over settings that only apply to Windows XP (we exclusively run Vista and Win7 clients). As we are having serious performance issues caused by overloaded GPOs I need to get rid of this settings.

How can I filter/show all settings within a GPO that only applies to Windows XP?

I am aware of the GPMC filtering function, however it does not fulfill my requirement.

Matthias Güntert
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  • Doesn't the GP client just skip policies that don't apply to it? I know if you have a policy with user settings, and you (for some reason) disable the user part of the policy, it basically does nothing - and the processing time is really minimal. Are you sure the issue isn't having a lot of different GPOs, rather than settings that the GP client skips inside GPOs you otherwise want? – jmp242 Mar 06 '15 at 13:45
  • You are right, the GP client skips this settings. But it still requires processing time. We have clients taking up to 20min to boot. This is due to CSE like 'File permissions' etc. and really needs a proper cleanup. – Matthias Güntert Mar 06 '15 at 13:48
  • Are you looking for Objects that have no Windows Vista + relevant settings then? Or are you saying that you're finding that a GPO with some relevant and some non relevant settings takes longer to process than a GPO with JUST the relevant settings? Because I've not found the latter to be true. – jmp242 Mar 06 '15 at 13:51
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    This may be an XY problem, as in the question you may want to ask is _Why(Is?) Group policy slowing down boot up time on my clients?_ – MDMoore313 Mar 06 '15 at 14:33

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To my knowledge this isn't possible - the "Applies to" description is merely a string embedded in the adm(x) file. There's no "IF" processing for this - regardless of what version of Windows processes the Group Policy it'll set that setting, whether it has any impact or not.

Group Policy is exceptionally quick at processing individual registry based settings and I highly doubt this is the root of your problem, though.

Dan
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    That's right. Short of checking each individual policy setting for the operating system setting, there isn't one. If OP is using Item level targeting he can skip XP altogether, but that's neither here nor there. – MDMoore313 Mar 06 '15 at 14:35
  • *I highly doubt this is the root of your problem*... I second that. – I say Reinstate Monica Mar 07 '15 at 02:41