Windows – When does the Group Policy update interval start

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When exactly does the 90 minute (+ 30 minute random offset) Group Policy update interval begin?

Is it when a PC boots into Windows?

Also, is the 30-minute randomization offset applied each time Group Policy updates, or just once (at the beginning)?

Best Answer

It is scheduled after the computer starts, and after group policy is first applied. You can observe this from the 5315 event in the GroupPolicy-Operational event log: 

Next policy processing for DOMAIN\COMPUTERNAME$ will be attempted in 112 minutes.

It will also occur in response to specific events. An example is a network state change. It is not uncommon to observe this during startup, and will be recorded as a 4002 event in the GroupPolicy-Operational event log: 

Starting policy processing due to network state change for computer DOMAIN\COMPUTERNAME$ . 
Activity id: {0a3dd15b-b6c6-4ad9-9509-e5d36caf26fa}

The random value is applied each time.

Troubleshooting Group Policy Using Event Logs
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc749336%28v=ws.10%29.aspx

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