Group Policy ADMX and ADML Configuration of a

Group Policy ADMX and ADML Configuration of a central store

Overview • Group Policy Overview • . admx and. adml files • Group policy integration – Local – Central Store • Benefits • Limitations • Video

Group Policy • Prior to Windows Vista/Server 2008 we used. adm files in group policy – Proprietary file format – Requires that administrators have a local copy of all. adm files – Requires copying of the adm file to specific group policy object sysvoldomainpolicies<GUID> directories – About 2 MB in size, causes lots of replications issues. (2 MB * 1000 files = 2 GB of network traffic)

. admx and. adml • Newer group policy object files based on xml and supports language specific variants (. adml) • Supported natively by Windows Vista and later operating systems • Smaller foot print than previous. adm files

Group Policy Integration • Local Store – %systemroot%policy. Definitions • Central Store – %systemroot%sysvoldomainpoliciesPolicy. Definitions • Both work with Group Policy Editor on Windows Vista and later

Benefits • Advantages of using ADMX Central Store: – Once an admx file is added to the central store, it is available to all group policy administrators – Reduces the amount of replication across the domain controllers –. admx and. adml files are about 1/10 th the size of. adm files – Central store is only copied once

Limitations • Only Windows Vista and later operating systems versions of group policy administrative console support admx and adml files • Administrators cannot use a Windows XP or prior operating system to administer group policy, including Windows Server 2003 R 2 and earlier server versions • Will break custom modifications directly made to the following files – – System. adm Inetres. adm Wmplayer. adm Wuau. adm • . admx and. adml files for Windows 7 and 2008 R 2 are not necessarily compatible with group policy editor for Vista and 2008. • . admx and. adml files must be located either centrally or locally to apply correctly

Notes • http: //technet. microsoft. com/enus/library/cc 709647. aspx • http: //technet. microsoft. com/enus/video/screencast-how-to-configure-thecentral-admx-store. aspx