Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Download Pick: Vista Group Policy Adm to ADMX Migrator

A few weeks ago I posted a blog entry about the new Group Policy in Windows Vista (W2K3 R2 server/Longhorn) and how it uses ADMX files instead of ADM files. http://kenzig.blogspot.com/2006/11/article-getting-ready-for-vista-group.html

In reading I was complaing that there was no tool to edit or create ADM files and MS had no plans to create one. Guess the article and I was wrong as Microsoft just released the ADMX file convertsion tool per my announment below.. (note to self.. never say never)

Microsoft has recently released a tool to convert your current ADM file into an ADMX file for use on Vista Group Policy. It also includes an editor for ADMX Files:
From
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0f1eec3d-10c4-4b5f-9625-97c2f731090c&DisplayLang=en
The ADMX Migrator enables you to convert ADM files to the ADMX format and take advantage of the additional capabilities that it provides. The new XML-based format includes multilanguage support, an optional centralized datastore, and version control capabilities. You can select multiple ADM files for conversion. The ADMX Migrator creates a unique namespace which you can rename and will display a warning if a collision is detected due to duplicate names. Also, any items that cannot be validated against the ADMX schema are preserved in an Unsupported section. Please note that any annotations in ADM files are removed during the conversion process.Additionally, the ADMX Migrator provides an ADMX editor with a graphical user interface for creating and editing Administrative Templates. You can select settings from menus rather than entering them manually in a text file, speeding template creation and reducing the chance for error.
Get the file from the above link.

Also Microsoft last week released the final version of a list of all of the group policies that will be available for VISTA at:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=41dc179b-3328-4350-ade1-c0d9289f09ef&DisplayLang=en

No comments: