Resetting GPOs to factory default

You ever work so tediously to customize the local GPOs on a Windows Operating system and something just goes array? Then you lose track of what changes need to be made to fix the issue? You can't revert to a 'known good configuration' when it comes to GPO customization...or can you?

I found a solution where you can just remove the GPO you set completely so you can start over from scratch...sometimes you need to do this regardless of the reason/situation. This technique works for Windows Vista/7 and Windows 2008. I did not test on previous operating systems...

Here are the steps:


*Step 1 removes the password restrictions along with other security policies that may prevent you from running steps 2-3.

1) 'Run as' administrator and open up command prompt. Type the command below
and press enter:

Secedit /configure /cfg c:\windows\inf\defltbase.inf /db defltbase.sdb
/verbose

2) In the command prompt, type the command below and press Enter. (see
screenshot below step 7)
NOTE: Substitute D in the command below with your drive letter from step 4
instead.

    RD /S /Q "D:\Windows\System32\

GroupPolicy"

3) In the command prompt, type the command below and press Enter. (see
screenshot below)
NOTE: Substitute D in the command below with your drive letter from step 4
instead.

    RD /S /Q "D:\Windows\System32\GroupPolicyUsers"