Windows Update settings in registry not reflecting in the Local Group Policy

Hello Itayi Adam,
Thank you for posting in Q&A forum.

Here is some information for your reference.

How Group Policy Works:  

1.Administrative Template settings are implemented via the Group Policy engine and then “compiled” into the registry.pol file (located under C:\Windows\System32\GroupPolicy\Machine for the computer configuration or located under C:\Windows\System32\GroupPolicy\User for the user configuration).  

2.When you use gpedit.msc to change a setting, it writes the policy configuration (and its enabled/disabled state) into that policy store file, not just to the registry key.  

3.When Windows applies Group Policy, it merges the settings from the registry.pol file into the registry. That’s why a policy change from gpedit results in a registry change. However, the reverse is not true. Changing the registry value manually (or via a PowerShell script) does not update the registry.pol file. Even though the registry shows the updated value, the Group Policy Editor still sees the setting as “Not Configured” because its source (registry.pol) hasn’t been updated.

For non-domain joined computers, if your goal is simply to have the desired behavior (e.g., enabling Manage Preview Builds), simply updating the registry might be enough for Windows to use the new values. However, if you want the Local Group Policy Editor to reflect that the policy setting is “Configured” (which might be important for documentation or auditing purposes), you’ll need to actually update the local Group Policy store rather than just the corresponding registry values.

Unfortunately, there’s no supported way to simply “notify” Group Policy that you’ve manually changed the registry so that it retroactively marks the setting as configured. The policy “configured” status is determined by the source data in the policy store files.

I hope the information above is helpful.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to let us know.

Best Regards,

Daisy Zhou

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