why is my homepage GPO not working?

Did you apply this group policy to the right OU?

yes.  at least i do believe so with the correct security filtering.  now i haven't excluded that user from the our IE Zone assignments, but as far as I've learned, it shouldn't matter since this GPO takes precedence.
gpo-structure-for-aclab.png

Have you checked that the GPO isn't being over written in priority by the defaul domain GPO?

we don't have any URL's configured in any gpo except for the two gpo's listed in the original posting,  but i double checked and our default domain gpo has no URL configured.

I would create an OU for this GPO.  Apply the GPO.  Add a security group to the GPO called "IE HOMEPAGE"
Add the appropriate members to the security group.  This is scalable.  

Starting with a good design is crucial, especially in practical, scalable situations.  (Reference: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc736938.aspx).

Next, for troubleshooting, I would run the model use RSoP (Resultant Set of Policy snapin) to identify how your policy is being applied.  (Reference: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc783273.aspx).

Thanks for your suggestion SamCaldwell.  But there is an OU already created specifically for this GPO.  If you look at my screen shots in previous posts you can see this.  But your links were helpful.  I changed the security filtering to authenticated users for this OU, which shouldn't really make a difference since before I was specifiying the user.  I also enforced this GPO.  The homepage is still wrong and need another solution.

I sincerely apologize...too little sleep and too many hours yesterday.  I simply overlooked the obvious...

Again.  My apologies.

Have you verified that the GPO propagated down to the client?  Have you tried running gpupdate /force or rebooting the affected system?

Yes I have done this, about a million times.  It'l like clicking the mouse button over and over even though it doesn't make things move faster.  The gpupdate /force does not work.  The GPO is running, as per the RSoP screen shot above.  The homepage and printers are the only settings linked in this GPO.  printers work fine, but of course  my issue with the homepage......

anyone else have any suggestions?  i'm still having this issue and have not found a solution.

Have you tried this on another workstation ?  

You know, that was actually on my list to work on today...I have tried this GPO on another OU, runs, but the homepage doesn't default correctly, even when this GPO is "enforced"  Attached are the RSOP data (screen shot 1 and 2 for acadmin). The homepage is configured correctly in the gpresult (configured for the AC Lab Settings), but when opening internet explorer, the page defaults to the wrong one (as set in the IE Zone Assignments - which runs for the entire company).

So just for the fun of it, I changed my default homepage in my IT Settings GPO, which runs much like the AC Lab settings.  And it works just fine and the page defaults correctly for me.  See the third screenshot for this data.

So it appears that my "default desktop settings" GPO, which originally had a homepage set, but was unchecked for customization, thus disabling it, since the URL was already configured inside the IE Zone Settings GPO is causing the issue.   Any ideas how to get around this without enabling the URL in the "default desktop settings" GPO? (you can see this disabled in the second screenshot)
rsop-for-acadmin.png
precedence-for-acadmin.png
it-homepage-defaults.png

You mentioned that the GPO for 'IE Zone' is being set at the parent OU and the 'AC Lab' is being set at the child OU.  Since there would be conflict for the same setting, the parent OU or domain policy would win.  Setting precedence or link order takes effect within the same OU only and has no bearing against the normal inheritance chain (local, sites, domain, OU, child OU)

You could try blocking group policy inheritance on the child OU.  If you already did that, double check that you don't have Enforced set on the parent OU which would prevent blocking inheritance.

If that's still giving you problems, check this out and give it a whirl:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winserverDS/thread/2f1314d6-d47f-4a1d-8dce-76aeeb643860/