First in a series on improving Windows Group Policy. This apply to the whole Group Policy milieu on a network, all domain controllers.
- Even if there is only one domain controller, change the replication from 180 minutes to 15 minutes. These are in the properties of the site links, in Active Directory Sites and Services, under Inter-Site Transport, under IP. If you have more than one site link enabled, do it for all. Obviously you should moderate carefully, if you are using SMTP or have bandwidth issues.
- Set services fdPHost and FDResPub as startup Automatic, from Manual.
- Add Subnet(s) to each Site in Active Directory Sites and Services. Then show subnets in the Group Policy Management Console, and map group policies there. Even if there is only one Site, this can help a lot.