Administrative Templates and Group Policy Objects
How much do you know about Administrative Templates? Solve this month's Windows IT Pro Update Reader Challenge, and you might win a prize!
Take the July 2009 Reader Challenge:
I've received quite a few queries from readers who want to finetune Group Policies and don't understand the role of Administrative Templates. I've been using them for years, through many versions of Windows, and I find them easy to use--the ability to create a template from scratch is handy for setting policies that may not be covered in standard Group Policy Objects (GPOs).
Question #1: Policies applied through an Administrative Template always work as registry changes.
A. True
B. False
Question #2: Policies set in Administrative Templates that are stored on a domain controller have precedence over conflicting policies stored on the local computer.
A. True
B. False
Question #3: Administrative Templates in Windows Vista are XML files (aka ADMX files), and therefore Administrative Templates from previous versions of Windows (aka ADM files) can’t be used on computers running Vista.
A. True
B. False
How to Play:
Email your solution (don't use an attachment) to challenge@windowsitpro.com by July 28, 2009. You MUST include your full name, street mailing address (no P.O. Boxes), and a telephone number. Without that information, we can't send you a prize if you win, so your answer is eliminated, even if it’s correct.
I choose winners at random from the pool of correct entries. I’m a sucker for humor and originality, and a cleverly written correct answer gets an extra chance. Because I receive so many entries each month, I can't reply to respondents, and I never respond to a request for an email receipt.
Look for the solutions to this month's problem at http://www.windowsitpro.com/articles/index.cfm?articleid=102511 on July 29.
June 2009 Reader Challenge Winner:
Congratulations to James G. St. John of New York, the winner of our June 2009 Reader Challenge. He wins a copy of Head First Networking from O'Reilly Media.
Related Reading:
Answers to the JULY 2009 READER CHALLENGE:
Question #1: A (True)
Question #2: A (True)
Question #3: B (False) ADM files work on computers running Vista. In addition, Microsoft provides a conversion tool to convert ADM files to ADMX files, so you can edit the older files with XML if you have a template that requires this action.