Administrative Templates

  • Article

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

Administrative Templates

Administrative Templates provide policy information for the items that appear under the Administrative Templates folder in the console tree of the Group Policy Object Editor.

Administrative Template .adm files

An .adm file consists of a hierarchy of categories and subcategories that together define how the policy settings appear. It also contains the following information:

  • Registry locations that correspond to each setting.

  • Options or restrictions in values that are associated with each setting.

  • For many settings, a default value.

  • Explanations of what each setting does.

  • The versions of Windows that support each setting.

The Administrative Templates for Group Policy contain all registry-based policy information. User configurations are saved in HKEY_CURRENT_USER (HKCU), and computer configurations are saved in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE (HKLM). HKCU and HKLM place registry information that is specific to Group Policy under \Software\Policies or under \Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies. Therefore, there are five areas of the registry that contain Group Policy registry settings.

Administrative Templates offer these new features:

  • A description of each policy setting in Administrative Templates appears in searchable online Help.

    Administrative Template Description

    System.adm

    System settings

    Inetres.adm

    Internet Explorer settings

    Wmplayer.adm

    Windows Media Player settings.

    This tool is not available on the Itanium-based versions of the Windows operating systems.

    This tool is not available on the x64-based versions of the Windows operating systems.

    Conf.adm

    NetMeeting settings.

    This tool is not available on the Itanium-based versions of the Windows operating systems.

    This tool is not available on the x64-based versions of the Windows operating systems.

    Wuau.adm

    Windows Update settings.

  • A supported keyword in the .adm files that tells you which versions of Windows are supported as clients for the setting. For information about the supported keyword, see "Implementing Registry-based Policy" at the Microsoft Web site.

  • A Web view that shows the explain text of each setting and the new supported information. For information about how to use the Web view, see Use the view provided by Administrative Templates.

  • The ability to filter settings from the view to reduce screen clutter when you are using Administrative Templates. For information about how to use this new feature, see Filter the view provided by Administrative Templates.

If you plan to create entries for Administrative Templates, populate the namespace by using the following naming convention, which is also used in the registry: \CompanyName\product\version (or \CompanyName\product&version). For example, the operating system settings for Windows are in \Microsoft\Windows.

For information about adding an .adm file, see Add or remove an Administrative Template (.adm file). For more information about Administrative Templates, see Administrative Templates included with this version of Windows and The role of Administrative Templates.

Registry.pol files

The Administrative Templates extension of Group Policy saves information in Registry.pol files. These files contain the customized registry settings that you specify (by using Group Policy) that are to be applied to the computer or user portion of the registry:

  • One of the Registry.pol files contains registry settings that are specific to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE key; it is stored in the GPT\Machine folder.

  • The other Registry.pol file contains registry settings that are specific to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER key; it is stored in the GPT\User subdirectory.