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Okay.

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Let's switch gears and talk about the different modes of group policy processing.

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So we've talked about foreground and background.

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Now each processing cycle, whether it be foreground or background, can run in one of two different

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modes.

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And those modes are either synchronous, which is essentially meaning that group policy processing for

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the computer finishes completely before the user can log in, and then group policy processing for the

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user finishes completely before they can use their desktop.

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So that's synchronous processing.

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The other kind of processing is asynchronous.

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And that means that essentially group policy processing is running while the user is logging in for

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the computer and while they're working on their desktop for the user.

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So group policy processing is happening in the background while the user is getting productive.

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And this is a usually a.

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A much better place to be from a performance and desktop experience perspective, but it's definitely

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different from a group policy processing perspective.

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And I will point out that asynchronous processing has been the default on Windows Workstation SKUs like

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Windows XP, Windows seven since Windows XP.

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And in fact, you have to specifically override it if you want some other kind of behavior.

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So let's dig into this a little bit.

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So what does asynchronous processing really look like?

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Well, the computer starts up and this is, you know, the cycle from a computer that's often a user

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that's obviously not logged on to a computer that's on and the user's logged on.

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So the computer starts up.

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Computer processing starts at some point during that boot cycle, when the computer gets network access

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and starts to resolve to add the user's log on dialog is presented so the control plus alt plus delete

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log on dialog is presented sometime, while group policy computer processing is continuing on its path.

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Now the user can log on at that point and when the user logs on then user based processing happens sometime

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in that in that user log on cycle.

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And the user gets their desktop presented to them and usable while processing may still be going on.

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So essentially user processing is happening in the background and the user is functional and able to

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work on their desktop.

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Now let's contrast that with synchronous processing.

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So in synchronous processing, again, the computer starts up, computer processing starts up, but

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the user doesn't get their log on dialogue until computer processing has completed.

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So once the user gets their log on dialogue and they enter in their credentials, they log on.

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And now user processing starts up at some point in the user log on cycle.

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But the user doesn't get a usable desktop presented to them until after the user processing has finished.

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So as you can see, this sort of elongates the whole group policy processing cycle.

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So let's look at some of the facts around sync versus async processing.

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So synchronous processing is obviously slower than asynchronous.

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I think this is probably obvious, but for background processing, remember foreground and background.

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Background processing always runs asynchronously by definition.

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In other words, there is always something else going on.

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While background processing is running Windows Server rescues like Windows Server 2000 or two or 2012.

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They always run synchronously, so that's just the default and you can't really change it.

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It's always synchronous on workstations.

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You can actually force always on synchronous processing by enabling this computer's specific policies.

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So it would have to apply to computer objects and AD, but you can absolutely get for synchronous processing

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if you decided you wanted to do that.

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And why would you do that?

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Why would you force it all the time?

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Well, there are several different policy areas, and I'll talk about this in a little bit that require

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a foreground synchronous processing cycle in order to complete.

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These include folder redirections, software, installation and then preferences drive mappings before

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Windows 8.1.

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In the absence of running synchronously, let's say you log on and you've got some of these policy areas

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implemented and you've got a synchronous processing set.

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What'll happen is the first time you log on the engine will notice that these policy areas that have

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been set and it won't be able to process them because it requires that synchronous foreground cycle.

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But it will set a flag that says the next time the foreground cycle runs, we need to run it synchronously.

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So essentially you get the situation where you might require two separate log ons for the user to receive

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their folder redirection software installation or preferences drive mappings.

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Of course, if you're setting the flag to run always synchronous, then you're sort of always making

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the user way that computer start up and user log on, which is not necessarily a good thing for the

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user experience.

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So let's dig into this a little bit more on one of our test systems.