1 00:00:03,080 --> 00:00:08,180 So let's move on from our initial discussion of administrative templates and talk about how those things 2 00:00:08,210 --> 00:00:09,130 get populated. 3 00:00:10,010 --> 00:00:14,420 The policy options that you see in the ED, where do those come from? 4 00:00:15,260 --> 00:00:21,470 Well, in fact, they have a long history of being provided by what are called AD Amex or ads templates. 5 00:00:22,310 --> 00:00:27,830 What you see in the GP ed under that administrative templates node, all those different subfolders 6 00:00:27,830 --> 00:00:32,960 are generated dynamically based on the admixture template files that exist on your system. 7 00:00:33,830 --> 00:00:38,900 And those files live in the file system on every Windows system in this C Colon Backslash. 8 00:00:38,900 --> 00:00:41,510 Windows Backslash Policy Definitions folder. 9 00:00:42,430 --> 00:00:45,460 They have essentially changed very little over the years. 10 00:00:46,330 --> 00:00:52,180 But starting in Windows Vista and Server 2008, Microsoft moved the format of those files from simple 11 00:00:52,180 --> 00:00:56,950 text files where both the policy registry entry definitions and the strings that you see. 12 00:00:56,950 --> 00:01:04,120 The words that you see in editor were combined in one file in the EDM world to this new world of Adam 13 00:01:04,120 --> 00:01:09,070 X Files where the Adam X file contains the registry values that need to be supported. 14 00:01:09,930 --> 00:01:15,270 And the ADMA file the file which the DOT an extension contains localized strings. 15 00:01:16,200 --> 00:01:21,570 So depending on which language version of Windows you're running, what you'll see in editor will be 16 00:01:21,570 --> 00:01:23,340 localized policy settings. 17 00:01:24,300 --> 00:01:29,550 So if you're on a French version of Windows, you'll see French text appearing under admin templates. 18 00:01:30,450 --> 00:01:34,380 Or if you're in on an English version of Windows, you'll see English text. 19 00:01:35,310 --> 00:01:40,890 So the Adam X format, which is now also XML, makes it a lot easier and more flexible when it comes 20 00:01:40,890 --> 00:01:46,350 to supporting multiple languages and multiple sources of information from a sort of design perspective. 21 00:01:47,220 --> 00:01:52,860 But the bottom line is that Adam X Files and just like Adam files before them were the things that drive 22 00:01:52,860 --> 00:01:54,420 what you see in editor. 23 00:01:55,350 --> 00:01:58,410 So let's look at a little bit more depth into these things. 24 00:01:59,370 --> 00:02:05,160 So this is just a screenshot of the C colon backslash windows backslash policy definitions folder on 25 00:02:05,160 --> 00:02:06,420 one of my test machines. 26 00:02:07,350 --> 00:02:09,810 And you'll see all these Adam X files. 27 00:02:10,710 --> 00:02:17,610 There's 176 Adam X files that Microsoft ships out of the box in this particular version of Windows. 28 00:02:18,480 --> 00:02:21,960 And I can add to this depending on what I'm trying to control. 29 00:02:22,840 --> 00:02:28,600 In addition, if I drill into this, you'll see a subfolder called in U.S. and that stands for English 30 00:02:28,600 --> 00:02:29,140 U.S.. 31 00:02:30,020 --> 00:02:36,200 And in that subfolder, all the admin files, there's one admin file for each add amex file. 32 00:02:37,060 --> 00:02:43,930 And it contains those ADL files contain the language specific strings that get populated into the editor 33 00:02:43,930 --> 00:02:45,100 when these things are loaded. 34 00:02:46,030 --> 00:02:49,360 So how does this correspond really to what you see? 35 00:02:50,260 --> 00:02:56,200 So what I've done is I've taken a screenshot of the management editor and drilled in under Windows components, 36 00:02:56,200 --> 00:02:58,810 within admin templates and auto play policies. 37 00:02:59,650 --> 00:03:03,250 And there's a set of four options on the right hand side of the screen. 38 00:03:04,120 --> 00:03:09,940 How this actually gets created and populated is driven by the contents of the auto playground file. 39 00:03:10,810 --> 00:03:17,470 So that auto play dot n's file gets loaded up when you load editor past, the XML is parsed, merged 40 00:03:17,470 --> 00:03:24,100 with the strings in the ADMA file and essentially turns into what you see in the editor, this folder 41 00:03:24,100 --> 00:03:29,110 that says auto play policies and the settings those four settings and they're options are all defined 42 00:03:29,110 --> 00:03:31,480 in those ads and ADMA files. 43 00:03:32,410 --> 00:03:35,800 Note that and I see this sort of confusion a lot. 44 00:03:36,670 --> 00:03:44,650 Adam X And ADMA files are only used by admin templates, settings, no other policy area be it security 45 00:03:44,650 --> 00:03:49,870 or GP preferences or internet explorer's maintenance or folder redirection. 46 00:03:50,740 --> 00:03:54,880 None of those other policy areas are controlled by Adam X Files. 47 00:03:55,780 --> 00:04:01,840 Only what you see under user configuration admin templates or computer configuration admin templates. 48 00:04:02,740 --> 00:04:08,920 Now this notion of having Adam X files driving what you see in editor is completely extensible. 49 00:04:09,790 --> 00:04:15,760 You can extend what you see in the editor by creating your own custom Adam X and ADMA files. 50 00:04:16,660 --> 00:04:23,440 Now again you can arbitrarily populate registry settings using these Adam X and ADMA files to define 51 00:04:23,440 --> 00:04:24,670 those registry settings. 52 00:04:25,540 --> 00:04:27,910 And in fact lots of third parties do this. 53 00:04:27,940 --> 00:04:35,050 Citrix Firefox, Mozilla, Google, Chrome, even other Microsoft products like Microsoft Office provide 54 00:04:35,050 --> 00:04:38,500 their own Adam X files that let you configure those products. 55 00:04:39,370 --> 00:04:44,380 And it's important to recognize that when you write your own, it has to follow the proper schema and 56 00:04:44,380 --> 00:04:46,000 format for Adam X. 57 00:04:46,900 --> 00:04:52,600 And in order to do that, you would typically use some kind of you could certainly use notepad or something 58 00:04:52,600 --> 00:04:53,980 that creates text files. 59 00:04:54,860 --> 00:04:58,580 But Microsoft has a free tool called Adam X My Greater. 60 00:04:59,490 --> 00:05:07,170 Its initial role in life was to let you migrate or convert EDM files in the old Windows XP days to Adam 61 00:05:07,170 --> 00:05:07,830 X Files. 62 00:05:08,010 --> 00:05:12,420 But it also has an authoring editor that you can use to sort of jumpstart writing these things. 63 00:05:13,310 --> 00:05:18,110 And again it's you can configure any registry value using ad amex. 64 00:05:19,030 --> 00:05:23,920 But if it's in, not in one of those four non tattooing registry keys that get removed each time admin 65 00:05:23,920 --> 00:05:29,560 template policy is processed, then anything you can figure via adma will tattoo the registry. 66 00:05:30,460 --> 00:05:32,260 So that's just something to keep in mind. 67 00:05:32,260 --> 00:05:36,040 You know, that you're free to create these custom DMX files. 68 00:05:36,950 --> 00:05:42,200 But they don't necessarily fall into the non tattooing behavior unless the application that you're trying 69 00:05:42,200 --> 00:05:46,700 to configure or control will look in those four keys for their configuration settings. 70 00:05:47,630 --> 00:05:53,540 So I mentioned that admixture and ADMA files by default are stored on the local workstation undersea 71 00:05:53,540 --> 00:05:53,930 colon. 72 00:05:53,930 --> 00:05:56,690 Colin Backslash Windows backslash policy definitions. 73 00:05:57,590 --> 00:06:04,100 So each person that runs editor will consult that directory as ED comes up to build the tree of stuff 74 00:06:04,100 --> 00:06:05,930 that you see under admin templates. 75 00:06:06,830 --> 00:06:12,080 Now there is the facility to do something called the Admin Central Store, and a central store is really 76 00:06:12,080 --> 00:06:18,200 just a copy of all the local DMC's and ADMA files stored in the system folder that's replicated to every 77 00:06:18,200 --> 00:06:20,870 domain controller in an Active Directory domain. 78 00:06:21,730 --> 00:06:27,580 And specifically you would copy the contents of your C colon backslash windows backslash policy definitions 79 00:06:27,580 --> 00:06:33,220 folder to this folder structure under backslash backslash domain name backslash sizable backslash domain 80 00:06:33,220 --> 00:06:34,690 name backslash policies. 81 00:06:34,690 --> 00:06:36,490 Backslash Policy Definitions. 82 00:06:37,360 --> 00:06:42,940 And once you do that, everyone in the domain that's editing GPOs were viewing or reporting on GPOs 83 00:06:42,940 --> 00:06:50,590 using PMC and editor will refer to that so it essentially overrides what you have undersea colon backslash 84 00:06:50,590 --> 00:06:55,090 window backslash policy definitions and everyone uses the same adma x files.