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Managing Windows Vista Group Policy (Part 1)
Sunday, November 12th, 2006
Windows Vista includes some important changes from earlier Windows operating systems in 
regards to Group Policy (GP). This article introduces you to how ADM files evolved into multi-lingual files by the use of XML (ADMX/ADML files) and the Central Store with all its glory.
Welcome to the constantly expanding Microsoft Group Policy universe.
ADM files were first introduced with Windows NT4 and they have stuck ever since. First of all it’s important to understand, that ADM files are nothing but templates (Administrative Templates) - this means that when Group Policy Object Editor (GPOE) or Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) loads, the content is presented to the users of the console - nothing else (the administrative experience you could say). When the policy is changed or created, a Registry.pol file is created in the Group Policy Object (GPO) container - this is the actual policy with all the corresponding and specific registry settings defined in the template file(s). So, the machine or user receiving the policy actually doesn’t need the ADM files at all.
ADM files had an obscure syntax from the very beginning with its own special markup-language, which is pretty difficult to master. With customized Administrative Templates there are lots of possibilities to create your own “registry policies”, making sure your clients are configured in a specific way.
The new ADMX/ADML files take over from where ADM files left. They are still just templates and only there for the administrators creating and modifying group policies, local as well as domain based. The managed "end users" and "end machines" will have no awareness as to whether the policy settings were configured from Vista (using ADMX/ADML files) or Windows 2000/2003 (using ADM files) – we still just edit and populate the Registry.pol file. This is the reason why ADM and ADMX/ADML files can coexist. You will not notice the presence of ADMX files during your day-to-day policy administration tasks Managing Windows Vista Group Policy (Part 1)
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