If you can remember back in Chapter 1, Group Policy – The Basics, we discussed the overall mindset behind Group Policy's application of settings, and that there are multiple tiers within which you can push settings to your user or computer objects. As a quick refresher, Group Policy applies in the following order:

• Local Group Policy
• Site-linked policies
• Domain-linked policies
• OU-linked policies

Always keep this in mind when digging into policies to determine what should or should not be applying. It is often helpful to draw this out on paper. When stuck troubleshooting an issue, try mapping out the flow of a computer account through these four tiers, asking yourself along the way, "Does this computer have any local policy? No, then how about any policies getting applied for the site where it is currently sitting? Yes, there is the printers policy. OK, now how about any policies linked to the root of the Domain?" and so on. Putting quill to parchment, however 17th-century it feels, can benefit your understanding of how Group Policy is ordering its application of settings.