Administrators Should Use Caution When Deleting GPOs with Software Installation (MSI)

ID: Q240976

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
Microsoft Windows 2000 Server

SYMPTOMS

After an administrator deletes a Group Policy Object (GPO) that was used to manage software, some user's programs may not be removed from their computers.

CAUSE

This problem can occur if there isn't enough time between marking the programs to be removed and deleting the GPO. When this occurs, some users may not have logged on and some computers may not have restarted. Because of this, the "remove" instruction is lost.

RESOLUTION

To work around this problem, permit sufficient time for users to log on again before deleting a GPO.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article.

MORE INFORMATION

Best Practices

It is recommended that the administrator right-click software installation of the appropriate GPO, click Properties, click the General tab, and then click to select the Uninstall the application when it falls out of the scope of management check box. This feature requires an uninstallation of whatever was installed if the user is no longer affected by the package. This can occur as a result of the package being deleted or the user being moved to another OU unaffected by the package.

Another method is to remove all the software in the GPO you want to delete, and then leave the GPO effectively "empty" for some time before you delete it.

Additional query words:

Keywords : kbtool
Version : WINDOWS:2000
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbprb