Known issues managing a Windows 10 Group Policy client in Windows Server 2012 R2
Summary
This article describes the known challenges that can occur when you manage a Windows 10 Group policy client base from a Windows 2012 R2 server. The same challenges apply to using the Advanced Group Policy Management sever (AGPM) on a Windows 2012 R2 server when you manage Windows 10 Clients.
The document is separated into sections for each subsequent upgrade as they were released. It also indicates when a change affects only a specific build of the Group Policy ADMX template files.
The following list of changes do not include the many new additional settings that are added to each template file because they do not have any effect if they are added to an existing deployment. The existing deployment does not use those settings. Therefore, it is unlikely to affect the environment.
It is also important to consider that during the GPMC startup, the console caches the ADMX files into memory. Therefore, any changes to the templates that occur while the tool is open do not appear, even after a report refresh. After the tool is shut down and then re-opened, it will get the new ADMX files from the policydefinitions folder.
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Traditionally, the method of translating group policy settings into a user interface that could be easily managed was provided by ADM files. These files use their own markup language. They were locale-specific. Therefore, they were difficult to manage for multinational companies.
Microsoft Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 introduced a new method of displaying settings within the Group Policy Management Console. Registry-based policy settings (located under the Administrative Templates category in the Group Policy Object Editor) are defined as using a standards-based, XML file format known as ADMX (more commonly known as administrative templates).
Group Policy Object Editor and Group Policy Management Console remain largely unchanged. In most situations, you do not notice the presence of ADMX files during your daily Group Policy administration tasks.
Some situations require an understanding of how ADMX files are structured and the location in which they are stored. ADMX files provide an XML-based structure for defining the display of the Administrative Template policy settings in the Group Policy tools. The Group Policy tools recognize ADMX files only if you are using a computer that is running Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008 or later versions.
Unlike ADM files, ADMX files are not stored in individual GPOs. For domain-based enterprises, administrators can create a central store location of ADMX files that is accessible by anyone who has permission to create or edit GPOs. Group Policy tools continue to recognize any custom ADM files that you have in your existing environment, but will ignore any ADM file that has been superseded by an ADMX file, such as System.adm, Inetres.adm, Conf.adm, Wmplayer.adm, and Wuau.adm. Therefore, if you have edited any of the these files to change or create policy settings, the changed or new settings are not read or displayed by the Windows Vista–based Group Policy tools.
The Group Policy Object Editor automatically reads and displays Administrative Template policy settings from ADMX files that are stored either locally or in the optional ADMX central store. The Group Policy Object Editor automatically reads and display Administrative Template policy settings from custom ADM files that are stored in the GPO. You can still add or remove custom ADM files by using the Add/Remove template menu option. All Group Policy settings that are currently in ADM files that are delivered by Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, and Windows 2000 are also available in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 ADMX files.
It can be challenging to upgrade the policydefinitions folder that has later revisions of the ADMX files. This is because some settings are deprecated and some are added. Typically, adding settings has a minimal effect. However, deprecating settings often causes pre-configured Group Policies to retain settings that can no longer be changed. Commonly, those types of redundant settings from the new ADMX files are listed as “Extra Registry Settings” in the settings report. These settings are still applied to production, but the administrator can no longer turn them on or off.
In order to manage this situation, an administrator could delete the Group policy, if it is no longer required. Or, they could copy the legacy ADMX template back to the PolicyDefinitions folder. This would enable the setting to be managed again, but at the cost of losing the new settings from the later revision ADMX template.
Known ADMX file content change issues in Windows 10 build 1607
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Article ID: 4015786 – Last Review: Mar 23, 2017 – Revision: 36
Applies to
Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter, Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard, Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials, Windows 10 Version 1607, Windows 10 Version 1511
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SSDs: 6xOS Partitions, 2xW8.1 Main & Test, 2x10.0 Test, Pro, x64
CPU i7 2600 K, SandyBridge/CougarPoint, 4 cores, 8 Threads, 3.4 GHz
Graphics Radeon RX 580, RX 580 ONLY Over Clocked
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2xMonitors Asus DVI, Sony 55" UHD TV HDMI
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