Configuring Group Policy - MCTS Guide to Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Active Directory Configuration - page 258

chapter in “Group Policy Replication”). To that end, you examine GPT and GPC group policy
components more closely in the following section.
Group Policy Templates A Group Policy Template (GPT) isn't stored in Active Directory
but in a folder in the Sysvol share on a domain controller. It contains all the policy settings that make
up a GPO as well as related files, such as scripts. Every GPO has a GPT associated with it. The local
path to GPT folders on a domain controller is %systemroot%\SYSVOL\sysvol\ domain \Policies;
%systemroot% represents the drive letter and folder name where the Windows OS is stored, usu-
ally C:\Windows, and domain is the domain name. Each GPT is actually a series of folders and files,
but the root folder has the name of the GPO's GUID. Figure 7-3 shows the Policies folder with three
GPT folders.

Figure 7-3 The Policies folder with three GPTs

The names of policy folders look random, but two folders have the same name on every
domain controller. The folder starting with 6AC1 is the GPT for the Default Domain Controllers
Policy, and the folder starting with 31B2 is the GPT for the Default Domain Policy. The third
folder is the GPT for the GPO linked to the TestOU folder you created in Chapter 3.
When a new GPO is created, a number of files and subfolders are created under the root
folder. The number of files and subfolders in each GPT folder vary depending on which policies
have been configured, but each GPT has at least these three items:
• GPT.ini —This file contains the version number used to determine when a GPO has been
modified. Every time a GPO changes, the version number is updated. When GPO replica-
tion occurs, DCs use this version number to determine whether the local copy of the GPO
is up to date.
• Machine —This folder contains subfolders that store policy settings related to the
Computer Configuration node.
• User —This folder contains subfolders that store policy settings related to the User
Configuration node.