Where Does Windows Cache Applied Group Policy?
Windows caches applied Group Policy in the GroupPolicy folder, with Registry.pol files per machine and user.
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Applied Group Policy does not live only in the registry. Windows stages the administrative template settings as Registry.pol files in the GroupPolicy folder, one set for the machine and one per user.
That folder is the ground truth for what the client actually received. Corrupt it and policy symptoms get bizarre until a gpupdate rebuilds the files. Deleting the contents and forcing an update is the standard reset when policy behavior stops making sense.
Where Windows stores this, by platform
C:\Windows\System32\GroupPolicy
Machine and user Registry.pol files plus history live here. Needs admin rights to browse. Delete contents and run gpupdate /force to rebuild from the domain.
Frequently asked questions
Policy should have applied but did not. Where do I check?
Run gpupdate /force and check the folder's timestamps. Fresh timestamps mean the client pulled policy; stale ones point at replication or permissions instead.
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