Copying, Importing, and Migrating GPOs

The GPMC features built-in copy and import operations. The copy feature allows you to copy existing GPOs from one domain to another. The import operation allows you to create backup copies of GPOs in one domain and import them into another domain. Because no trust is necessary for the copy and import operations to work, the target domain for the copy or import operation can be a parent domain, child domain, a domain in a different tree or forest, or even an external domain for which no trust exists.

However, it is important to note that the copy and import operations work only with the policy settings within a policy object. These operations don’t copy a policy object’s links or any Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) filters that might be associated with a policy object.