When managing Group Policy, it is easy to lose track of what has changed between an old configuration and the current one. Manually comparing GPO exports is time-consuming and error-prone. This tool takes two GPO files and shows the differences in a clear overview.
Supported file types
Two file types can be used for the comparison.
The Settings Report is the most practical option for most situations. In the Group Policy Management Console, right-click a GPO and choose “Save Report”. This produces an HTML or XML file containing all configured settings. It is the same file most administrators already use for documentation purposes.
A GPO Backup is created by right-clicking a GPO and choosing “Back Up”. This produces a folder containing a Backup.xml and a bkupInfo.xml file. Although backups are primarily intended for recovery, they contain all policy settings in structured XML format and can be used directly for comparison.
When to use this
Use this tool when you want to verify what has changed between an old GPO backup and the current configuration. Use it when a setting is behaving differently than expected and you need to find out what was modified. Use it when you need a clear overview of changes for auditing or change management purposes.