Blocking Inheritance of GPOs on an OU

Problem

You want to block inheritance of GPOs on an OU.

Solution

Using a graphical user interface

1. Open the GPMC snap-in.
2. In the left pane, expand the Forest container, expand the Domains container, and browse to the target domain.
3. Right-click on the OU you want to block inheritance for and select Block Inheritance.

Discussion

By default, GPOs are inherited down through the directory tree. If you link a GPO to a top-level OU, that GPO will apply to any objects within the child OUs. Sometimes that may not be what you want, and you can disable inheritance as described in the solutions.
Try to avoid blocking inheritance when possible because it can make determining what settings should be applied to a user or computer difficult. If someone sees that a GPO is applied at a top-level OU, they may think it applies to any object under it. Using the Resultant Set of Policies (RSoP) snap-in can help identify what settings are applied to a user or computer.