How to Determine GPO Precedence When Using GPMC/GPRESULT

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A question I get from customers time to time is “which GPO has the highest precedence” when viewing linked GPOs in the GPMC.  Since I can never remember I decided to test it and document it once and for all.

Notice order of GPOs being applied – The policy listed as number 1 will be the last applied (of GPOs linked to OU) and will therefore have the highest precedence over the other GPOs linked to OU

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Notice Precedence Tab in GPMC.  Even though the sort order is reversed the lowest number takes precedence and will will be the GPO that wins where two or more GPOs are trying to apply a setting.

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Now the order in GPRESULT results – the order of precedence is shown top to bottom.  The top GPO takes precendence and will be the GPO that wins.

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Now change the order GPOs are applied in the GPMC

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Now review precedence tab in GPMC

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Now GPRESULT

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