Copying and Renaming Group Policy Object Disables Policy
Article ID: 198722
Article Last Modified on 2/27/2007
APPLIES TO
- Microsoft Windows 2000 Server
- Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server
- Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional Edition
- Microsoft Windows 2000 Datacenter Server
This article was previously published under Q198722
SUMMARY
When an Active Directory object is created in Windows 2000, it is assigned a Globally Unique Identifier (GUID). A GUID is a 128-bit integer used to identify an object, and is guaranteed to be unique.
If an Active Directory object is copied, a new GUID is assigned to the new object. The new GUID is different from that assigned to the original object. Therefore, if a Group Policy Object (GPO) is copied and later renamed, it receives a new set of GUIDs, which prevent it from using the policies defined in the original object.
MORE INFORMATION
Because references to objects are identity driven, you should avoid the copying and later renaming of objects. This practice disables any references to existing GPOs held by the Site, Domain, and Organizational Unit Active Directory containers. Instead, consider renaming the object. Renaming does not change the original objects' GUIDs, and leaves all object references intact.
Keywords: kbinfo KB198722