Group Policy Administrative Templates
Setting Group Policy administrative templates in Windows is nothing but admins control the working environment of user accounts and computer accounts. This feature is seen in every PC from Windows NT OS family. From Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 onwards, Groups Policy got a new format and that was registry-based policy settings. The Registry-based policy settings are located under the Administrative Templates category in the Group Policy Object Editor. Those are defined using a standards-based, XML file format, known as ADMX files. Thus, a Group Policy administrator need to create the Group Policy templates using the ADMX files. The new file format has replaced ADM files, which used their own markup language. However, in day-to-day Group Policy administration tasks of the admins, the presence of ADMX files is negligible.
Tools used to create Group Policy Administrative Templates in Windows
To create the Group Policy Administrative Templates in Windows 10/8/7, admins can use following tools:
Group Policy Object EditorGroup Policy Management Console
Both these tools have been around for quite a long time now and remain largely unchanged.
How to manage Central Store for Group Policy Administrative Templates
Windows uses a Central Store to store Administrative Templates files. If you wish to download the administrative templates based on your operating system, here’s the list of downloadable links:
Administrative Templates (.admx) for Windows 10 v2004Administrative Templates (.admx) for Windows 10 Creators UpdateAdministrative Templates (.admx) for Windows 10 Version 1607 and Windows Server 2016Administrative Templates (.admx) for Windows 10 and Windows 10 Version 1511Administrative Templates (.admx) for Windows 8.1 Update and Windows Server 2012 R2 UpdateAdministrative Templates (.admx) for Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2Administrative Templates (.admx) for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2Group Policy Templates for new Microsoft Edge Chromium browserAdministrative Templates for Office 2019, Office 365 ProPlus
Before you start using the Group Policy Administrative Templates in Windows in the form of .admx files, you have to create a Central Store. The Central Store is created in the SYSVOL folder on a Windows domain controller. Central Store is nothing but a file location that is checked by the Group Policy tools. Further, the Group Policy tools also use any .admx files that are in the Central Store. The files that are in the Central Store are later replicated to all domain controllers in the domain.
How to create a Central Store
To create a Central Store for .admx and .adml files, create a folder with the name PolicyDefinitions in the following location (for example) on the domain controller:
\contoso.com\SYSVOL\contoso.com\policies
Then, copy all files from the PolicyDefinitions folder on a source computer to the PolicyDefinitions folder on the domain controller. The source location can be either of the following:
The C:\Windows folder on a Windows 8.1-based or Windows 10-based client computerThe C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Group Policy\client folder if you have downloaded any of the Administrative Templates separately
The PolicyDefinitions folder on the Windows domain controller stores all .admx files and .adml files for all languages that are enabled on the client computer. This way, you can create and manage the Central Store for Group Policy Administrative Templates in Windows. Since creating and managing the Central Store for Group Policy Administrative Templates in Windows is an essential and critical task for the admins, it is necessary to know all the steps for it. For more information, read the complete guide on how to manage the Central Store of the Group Policy Administrative Templates in Windows on Microsoft.com. Also, know how to manage the Group Policy ADMX on MSDN. Read: How to Install or Update Group Policy Administrative Templates (ADMX).
