Can this be done in AutoIt?

[sublimnl]

I found the following function on the MSDN site and would like to use it within a tool I am currently writing. Basically I need a way to force a remote machine to refresh group policy.

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa374401.aspx

I have never attempted anything like this before in AutoIt so I am at a loss as to how to get started. Any help would be appreciated!

BTW, I decided against remotely executing gpupdate because gpupdate /force will sometimes come back with a Y/N prompt. I need something that will be completely silent and not leave a process running in the background on the remote machine. I figured it would be best to find a way to do this natively without external tools.

Edited August 24, 2007 by sublimnl

[tAKTelapis]

You could pipe a No response directly after the GPupdate.

Then it will not leave it hanging at the prompt.

This should force a GPupdate, with a No response to the prompt, and a completely blank CMD prompt showing, you could always use AutoIt to supress the CMD window though, and just go with the gpupdate.

@echo off
echo N | gpupdate /force > NUL
exit

[sublimnl]

right, but in some circumstances there will be two prompts (one for reboot, one for logoff) depending on the state of group policy. is there a way to pipe in two replies?

[lordofthestrings]

erm..

I'm sure you know this as you sound knowledgeable but GPUpdate has an option to perform it's actions against remote computers..

you can simply use send() to fill in the prompts using AdlibEnable() to loop at a specified interval

Syntax:  GPUpdate [/Target:{Computer | User}] [/Force] [/Wait:<value>]
     [/Logoff] [/Boot] [/Sync]

[sublimnl]

The /Target option is not for sending the command to remote computers unfortunately. It is to specify whether to update the local user or computer policy.

[lordofthestrings]

whoops.. that's a silly mistake of me..

[November]

Hi there,

You can try to do this in the machine:

secedit /refreshpolicy machine_policy /enforce

I dont know if its suitable for what you want, bur is an addiconal info.

You can use it to refresh users too:

secedit /refreshpolicy user_policy /enforce

Cheers,

[sublimnl]

thanks, but that will only work on win2k systems. secedit is no longer used for group policy refresh on winxp and above. anyone know how to implement the win32 function from my original post?

[The Kandie Man]

Here you go:

Global Const $RP_FORCE = 1
Global Const $True = 1
Global Const $False = 0

$bMachine = $True
;[in] Specifies whether to refresh the computer policy or user policy. If this value is TRUE, the system refreshes the computer policy. If this value is FALSE, the system refreshes the user policy.

Dim $Return

$Return = DllCAll("Userenv.dll","int","RefreshPolicyEx","int",$bMachine,"int",$RP_FORCE)

If IsArray($Return) Then
    ConsoleWrite("Function Returned: " & $Return[0] & @LF)
    Msgbox(64,"The Function Returned:","The function returned : " & $Return[0] & @CRLF & "If the value returned was not zero then the function succeeded.")
Else
    ConsoleWrite("DllCall didn't return an array.  The call was therefore unsuccessful." & @LF)
    MsgBox(16,"Error!","The Dll Call was unsuccessful because it did not return an array.")
EndIf

This worked for my anyway. Let me know if you have any questions.

- The Kandie Man ;-)

[sublimnl]

KandieMan, thanks so much. That works on my local machine! One step closer...I just have to figure out how to run it against a remote machine now.

[The Kandie Man]

In case you don't know about Sysinternals:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysintern...ng/PsTools.mspx

This is the utility in particular that allows remote execution:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysintern...ies/psexec.mspx

Hope that helps.

- The Kandie Man ;-)

[sublimnl]

thanks. yep, used sysinternals for years now. just wanted to do it all natively for a change to build up my knowledge. plus psexec is quarantined by mcafee in some companies I have been to in the past, so i figure best to just not rely on it. thanks for the nudge in the right direction on the script though!