How to Reset Group Policy Settings to Default

I recently came across an issue that I had to diagnose where I needed to reset a device’s Group Policy settings. It wasn’t the easiest thing to find how to do, so I thought I would document it here in full step-by-step dummies guide method in case I need it in the future again.

Group Policy Settings

Here are the correct steps to reset Group Policy settings to default:

Open the Command Prompt as an administrator.

Type the following command and press Enter:

"RD /S /Q "%WinDir%System32GroupPolicy"

Type the following command and press Enter:

"RD /S /Q "%WinDir%System32GroupPolicyUsers"

Type the following command and press Enter:

"gpupdate /force"

These steps will remove any custom Group Policy settings and restore the default settings. Please note that resetting Group Policy settings to default may affect system behavior and security, so proceed with caution and make sure you have a backup before proceeding.

Local Group Policy Settings

These commands will reset all local group policy settings in the Computer Configuration and User Configuration sections.

secedit /configure /cfg %windir%infdefltbase.inf /db defltbase.sdb /verbose

Then reboot the device. When it comes back up again, run the following command:

ren %windir%securitydatabaseedb.chk edb_old.chk

Then run this command and press Enter:

Gpupdate /Force

Reboot the device again and you should be clear of all local policies set.

Before You Reset Group Policy

Resetting Group Policy is a blunt instrument: it wipes every custom local GPO setting, not just the one causing trouble. Before running the commands above, try narrowing down the actual problem first with gpresult /h report.html, which generates a readable report of exactly which policies are currently applied and where they came from. If only one or two settings are misbehaving, it’s usually faster and safer to fix those directly in the Local Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc) than to reset everything.

Verifying the Reset Worked

After rebooting, run gpresult /r from an elevated Command Prompt to confirm which policies are currently in effect. On a domain-joined machine, you should see only domain-applied GPOs listed once local policy has been cleared – if custom local settings are still showing up, repeat the reset steps and make sure you rebooted between each stage.

If You’re on Intune Instead of Group Policy

These reset commands only apply to on-prem Group Policy. If the device is Intune-managed instead, there’s no local GPO to reset – configuration profiles are pushed from the cloud and reapplied automatically on the device’s next check-in, or you can force a sync from Settings > Accounts > Access work or school > Info > Sync. For a wider look at cloud-based device policy, see our guide to Intune compliance policies and Conditional Access.