Group Policy Clean up @ My Company

Good morning everyone.

I have been tasked with cleaning up the disaster that is my company's group policy..... I'm in need of some clarification...

Easy Example:
Control Panel/Personalization/Prevent Changing Screen Saver     ENABLED

So If I understand group policy correctly, since this setting is "flipped on" (ive read this also referred to as "tattooed") even though I choose "not configured", it will stay "flipped on" until it is "flipped off" correct?  So for me to clean this setting, I have to flip it to Disabled, let it sit for a while and then set it to "not configured".  Is that correct?

Now, I am working in a Group Policy environment that has existed since this company went to active directory a thousand years ago.... It has been used and abused.  I am thinking that there are probably settings all over the place that have been "flipped on" and never "flipped off".  The only way I can think to get around this is to clear the GPO policy on the client machines and force a GPO update..... I've taken a look around and found I can do either of the following:

 Delete C:\WINDOWS\security\Database\secedit.sdb
GPupdate /force

or should i just delete

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Nicrosoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies

then a gupdate /force

Think I can add a script to their login .bat files that does this safely?


2nd Example:
Folder Redirection Downloads : Enabled

So even if I choose "not configured" now, it will still be "tattooed" on the computers that have ran this policy.  I should flip it to disabled, let it sit, then flip to "not configured" correct?


One more question, if settings are set to "not configured" will they show up on the GPMC when click the "Settings" tab?  (im thinking the answer is no...)

Thanks for your help!