Microsoft KB Archive Search

Notice: This website is an unofficial Microsoft Knowledge Base (hereinafter KB) archive and is intended to provide a reliable access to deleted content from Microsoft KB. All KB articles are owned by Microsoft Corporation. Read full disclaimer for more details.

  1. Home
  2. GPOs are not deleted when you delete an organizational unit in the GPMC

GPOs are not deleted when you delete an organizational unit in the GPMC

Summary

Management of Group Policy in Windows consists of a Group Policy Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in and a set of scriptable interfaces for managing Group Policy. This article describes what happens when you right-click an OU and then select the delete OU command by using the Microsoft Group Policy Management Console (GPMC).

↑ Back to the top

More Information

Important Even if the GPMC is deployed to manage Group Policy Objects (GPOs), certain operations may affect other kinds of Active Directory objects in addition to GPOs. For example, if you right-click an organizational unit (OU) and then select the delete OU command, you receive the following message:
 
Do you want delete this organizational unit?
This will also delete all child objects under this organizational unit. 

A screen shot of the dialog that contains the message follows: 

information popup


This message could lead administrators to assume that if they select the delete OU command and then click OK, the GPMC will delete the OU and any objects that are stored in the OU. These objects would include any associated GPOs. However, this assumption is incorrect. 

Because OUs may contain only users, computers, groups, and subordinate OUs, the delete OU command is limited to deleting only those objects. Specifically, the delete OU command does not delete GPOs that are associated with the OU that is being deleted. This is true for the following reasons:
  • GPOs are stored in a different container. 
  • GPOs are linked only to admin-specified OUs. 
However, deleting an OU does delete any link relationships between an OU and any GPOs that are associated with the OU that is being deleted. 

For more information about the objects that can be defined inside an OU, go to the following Microsoft TechNet website:
Organizational units

↑ Back to the top

Keywords: kb

↑ Back to the top

Article Info
Article ID : 2726151
Revision : 1
Created on : 1/7/2017
Published on : 7/12/2012
Exists online : False
Views : 80