Back up Windows Group Policy settings

If you have made adjustments in Windows via the group policy editor, then it is recommended to make a backup of the group policy settings.

In the event that a problem arises, you do not need to reapply the entire Group Policy settings. Setting up a group policy requires quite a bit of effort. A backup prevents you from having to apply these settings again.

I can also imagine that if you have one group policy Once you have set it up, you can easily apply it to another local computer. You can use a backup for this.

Back up Windows Group Policy settings

There are two ways to back up a Group Policy. The first way is manual, you copy folders and files and place them in a safe place. The second way is via a PowerShell backup script.

Manually back up group policy settings

In the “System32” folder on a Windows computer is the “GroupPolicy” folder. This folder is hidden. If you back up this folder and its contents, you will have a Group Policy backup.

Open Windows Explorer. Go to the c:\windows\system32\ folder. Then click on “show” in the menu and then on “hidden items".

You will now see the “GroupPolicy” folder. Copy this folder to a safe location to have a backup of this local PC's Group Policy settings.

PowerShell script to backup group policy settings

It's even easier to use a script. You can use the script below:

$backuppath = "C:\GroupPolicy_Backup"
$date = Get-Date -Format "yyyy-MM-dd_HHmmss"
$backupfile = "GroupPolicyBackup_$date.zip"
$source = "$env:SystemRoot\System32\GroupPolicy"
$destination = "$backuppath\$backupfile"
If (!(Test-Path -Path $backuppath)) {
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path $backuppath
}
Compress-Archive -Path $source -DestinationPath $destination

The backup is saved to “C:\GroupPolicy_Backup” with an archive file and date.