Is it possible to initiate user and machine policy retrieval to be initiated remotely/from a SCCM server for win 7 clients? thanks

Not directly with the the ConfigMgr console, but yes there are various methods to achieve this result. All of the methods I know about rely on documented functionality from the SDK: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc145334.aspx. The two most popular are the Client Center (http://sourceforge.net/projects/smsclictr/) and right-click tools (http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/rhouchins/archive/2008/04/09/sccm-right-click-tools.aspx). Note that these methods require admin privileges on the target client system(s) as well as network connectivity.Jason | http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/jsandys | http://blogs.catapultsystems.com/jsandys/default.aspx | Twitter @JasonSandys