Re: Group Policy - ADM Files - I am totally confused!

Alan wrote:


"Steve Foster [SBS MVP]" <steve.foster@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:xn0erpt64uqbiw003@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The copies in the Policies\<GUID> path are there to support the Policies (this is where the GPOs are actually stored). They're irrelevant for what you see in the Group Policy Management Console.

%windir%\system32\GroupPolicy is the primary repository for installed ADM files. And this is where GPMC will look first when you want to add a new ADM to it. If new GPOs are then created, the additional ADM will be copied to the Policies\<GUID>\Adm folder along with the others.


Hi Steve,

Thanks for your reply.

If I download the most up to date ADM files from Microsoft, they come as MSI files.

If I install those MSI files I don't know exactly what they are going to do. Can I safely do that, and they will replace / update the ones on the server in the correct locations without causing any problems with my GP settings?

Well, the MSI installer should tell you what it's going to do when you run it.

The most likely scenario is that the ADMs will simply be unpacked somewhere on the machine, without touching any of the standard locations.

I've never seen changes to the ADMs break any policy, though if there's a policy item that exists in the policy for which the ADM doesn't have information, you will see references in the GPMC and other management tools to "extra registry settings", and you may not be able to update those elements in the GPO.

An example of this is My Pictures Folder Redirection, which was a Windows 2000 supported GPO policy element, but is only supported for backward compatibility in 2003, and the 2003 ADM doesn't have the element. Therefore, in a domain that was 2000-based, where that policy was set, that is upgraded to 2003 doesn't show the My Pictures redirection settings properly, nor can the setting be manipulated with the 2003 ADM.

--
Steve Foster [SBS MVP]
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MVPs do not work for Microsoft. Please reply only to the newsgroups.
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