Welcome to a series of seven short posts that will lay out all aspects of the GPO aka Group Policy Object – Microsoft’s framework for automated configuration of the Windows operating system.
Read the full article here or skip to the next article using the link at the bottom of this post.
Where Are GPOs Stored?
GPO’s are stored partly in your Active Directory database and partly in the replicated Sysvol folder shared by domain controllers. This is just something you should know in case of troubleshooting.
In your daily management you’ll not be accessing the Active Directory objects nor the Sysvol folders directly, perhaps with the exception of logon scripts which are normally placed manually in the Sysvol folder together with the GPO files.
In case of advanced troubleshooting of GPO consistency, the AD objects can be found in Domain\System\Policies:
And the GPO files and folders can be found in \\[Domain]\Sysvol\[Domain]\Policies:
