Admin Tips
- Windows Server 2008/2003/2000/XP/NT Administrator Knowledge Base
  - Windows Vista
    - Admin Tips
      - Administration
        Configuring a central store for ADMX templates

Section(s): Administration, Admin
Published on Mar 10, 2009.
Last Modified on Nov 14, 2008.
Last Modified by Mitch Tulloch.
Rating: Not Rated

Windows Vista and later have a way of reducing the SYSVOL bloat that happens with Group Policy in earlier versions of Windows.

Windows Vista and later have a way of reducing the SYSVOL bloat that happens with Group Policy in earlier versions of Windows. This occurred because ADM template files were copied to each GPO in SYSVOL whenever you created a GPO in earlier versions of Windows. With Windows Vista however, you can create a folder in your SYSVOL share and copy all your ADMX template files to this share, thus reducing the size of individual GPOs considerably. To do this, do the following:

1. Log on to your PDC Emulator, which may be running either Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2003.

2. Use Windows Explorer to open the %systemroot%\sysvol\policies folder and create a subfolder named PolicyDefinitions.

3. Run the following command from an elevated command prompt on a Windows Vista SP1 computer in order to copy the ADMX/ADML files from the Vista machine to the PolicyDefinitions folder:

xcopy %systemroot%\policydefinitions\* \\%logonserver%\sysvol\&userdnsdomain%\policies\PolicyDefinitions /s /y

4. Repeat step 3 from any admin workstations running Vista that have different language versions installed.

About Mitch Tulloch

Mitch Tulloch is a widely recognized expert on Windows administration, networking, and security. He has been repeatedly awarded Most Valuable Professional (MVP) status by Microsoft for his outstanding contributions in supporting users who deploy and use Microsoft platforms, products and solutions. Mitch has published over two hundred articles on different IT websites and magazines, and he has written or contributed to almost two dozen books and is lead author for the Windows 7 Resource Kit from Microsoft Press. For more information, see www.mtit.com .