If I have a few group policies that are now obsolete settings, what is the recommended way to get rid of them? If I delete the policy, will the settings remain on the users/computers in the scope? What if you disable instead of delete? Or how about disabling or deleting the link to the OU? Do you have to set the policies back to not configured first and let that take effect? Does this work for existing users/computers that already have the policy or just future new ones getting it for the first time? I also heard if the settings are tattooed, then you have to actually reverse the policy by setting enabled to disabled? What are the effects of all of these?

It depends on when your AD group policy settings are to be sent out. Group Policy Interval for Computers which can be found in Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\System\Group Policy The link below has a good discussion of how to push out the GP settings to clients. http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winserverGP/thread/2c3bb2dd-4bbd-4726-b2a9-5718e6496f66/ You can also do a gpupdate /force from the command line at the client computer to have it pull right away. Will require a log on/log off. As far as the obsolete settings go...If you put them back to not configured it will go back to that way on the clients. You can check this by doing the "gpresult" command from command line at the client to see what settings are actually getting applied

I'm good on all of the stated MS ways, but I'm looking for some insight that someone has seen in their testing before relating to removing group policies.

I guess I don't understand what your looking for then. If you remove the group policies they will go away. You can test it by doing gpresult to see if they did infact go away.

guess I was wondering if they go away or you need to set back to not configured or disabled first, you are saying if you delete the GPO, then they revert back to not configured and this would be the defaults on users/computers then

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/218279-46-correct-delete-reverse-settings Looks like some settings will revert back and some won't.

Simulate your changes using RSoP in planning mode.

RSoP won't simulate deleting a group policy object, or will it? I've only ever used it in logging mode. Do you have some info on planning mode?

RSoP won't simulate deleting a group policy object, or will it? I've only ever used it in logging mode. Do you have some info on planning mode? This is for 2003, but should still be applicable: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc737327(v=ws.10).aspx You could create a test OU with all the same policies applied as the current OU, remove the policy in question and simulate moving the object into the test OU.

Hi, I suggest you disable the obsolete group policies. If you delete or disable the policy and run gpupdate /force on every users/computers, the settings would disappear. You do not need to set the policies back to not configured first. It would work for existing users/computers. If the settings are tattooed, you may reverse the policy by setting enabled to disabled.

Hi, I suggest you disable the obsolete group policies. If you delete or disable the policy and run gpupdate /force on every users/computers, the settings would disappear. You do not need to set the policies back to not configured first. It would work for existing users/computers. If the settings are tattooed, you may reverse the policy by setting enabled to disabled.

which settings are tattooed/unmanaged?