During windows logon process, what is the sequence for Profile Load and GPO?

Question

According to this article: https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/markrenoden/2015/07/28/windows-enterprise-client-boot-and-logon-optimization-part-13-boot-phase-winlogon/, User Profile loads after Group policy is applied.

However, when I look at event logs in User Profile Service and Group Profile Service, User Profile load seems to be happening before GPO. Could anyone have more insights on this and explain which one is exactly happening before.

Answer 1

Prior to windows 10, it used to be the case that Group Policy was applied first.

Since Windows 10, this has changed to accompany the Fast Startup routine.

In Windows 8, where Fast Startup is also happening, Group Policy would still load first before the user logs in, which was considered a slow down factor, but in windows 10, this has changed.

Do note, your link is from 2015, from before Windows 10

The user is logged in as quickly as possible, and it takes up to between 1 and 5 minutes before the Group Policy is silently applied in the background.

This brings its own set of problems though. For example, if you have network shares, and group policy creates them and you have software that relies on them, network shares may show up as disconnected while they really aren't. In addition, if you make a change that requires the startup script, computers may need to reboot twice before the change is in effect due to the group policy not being applied before user login. So basically, you make a change, user logs in, nothing happens, group policy is refreshed, but its too late for the startup script to work, another reboot, and now the login script is applied.