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Windows 10 or Windows 11 GPO ADMX - Which One To Use For Your Central Store?

hewagen

Microsoft

Jan 17, 2022

Hi community,

My name is Helmut Wagensonner. I’m a Customer Engineer at Microsoft and this blog should help you to understand, which Administrative Templates (admx) to choose for your Windows 11 / Windows 10 mixed environment.

NOTE: The content of this article is only useful if you use ADMX file versions released before 21/07/23.

All the issues between the different ADMX versions mentioned in this blog have been fixed as of 21/07/23. You can now use the new Windows 11 ADMX files (download from Microsoft Download Center) to maintain Windows 11 and Windows 10 clients.

Also note that DataCollection.ADMX is a special case. See here ADMX DataCollection Policy CSP, here Changes to Windows diagnostic data collection and the blue box below for further information.

NOTE: The telemetry settings (DataCollection.admx) have been changed and renamed in Windows 11. Following table shows the Win10 settings and their corresponding Win11 terms.

Windows 10 ADMX - Allow Telemetry	Windows 11 ADMX - Allow Diagnostic Data
0-Security	Diagnostic Data Off
1-Required	Send required Diagnostic Data
2-Enhanced	[not present]
3-Optional	Send Optional Diagnostic Data

Clients, which are configured to "2-Enhanced" using the Windows 10 settings, will automatically drop back to "Send required Diagnostic Data" in Windows 11.

First of all let me say that both versions of the ADMX templates mentioned below, can be used with Windows 10 as well as with Windows 11. They are indentical except very few settings. This article is only about how to configure a setting, which is missing in one of the templates. Once configured your GPOs will work on both operating systems.

As long as we support Windows 10 it could occur that new Windows 10 features are not reflected in Windows 11 ADMX files and vice versa. The table at the end of this article shows differences between the Win10 and Win11 templates (as of Dec 16, 2021).

So what to do if you have a mixed environment of both client operating systems? Well, fact is that you can only copy one set of ADMX files to your Active Directory’s Central Store. Depending on what your future plans are, you should decide which templates fit best. If you plan to stay on Windows 10 for a while, you should choose the Windows 10 ADMX files. If you’re ready to upgrade to Windows 11 and this will become your dominating OS version (or it already is), you should copy the Windows 11 ADMX files to your Central Store.

But can you configure new Windows 10 policies if your central store contains the Windows 11 ADMX files? Well, you can! You just need to do this from a separate client. The steps below explain the approach.

Install a client with Windows 10 21H2 (important!) operating system and join it to your domain.
Log on with an user with administrative rights.
Right-click on your start menu and choose “Apps and Features”
Choose “Optional Features”
Choose “Add a Feature”
Search for “RSAT: Group Policy Management Tools” and click the “Install” button.
After successful installation you will find a “Group Policy Management” item in the “Windows Administrative Tools” folder in your start menu.
Open your Registry Editor and add following registry value:
Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Group Policy
Value: EnableLocalStoreOverride
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 1
Restart your computer and log on with a user account that has the right to edit domain Group Policy objects.
Run the “Group Policy Management” from your start menu and open the desired GPO for edit. The Administrative Templates should now be taken from the client’s local store instead of the central store.

Following table illustrates differences between Windows 10 21H2 and Windows 11 21H2 ADMX files.

ADMX name	Scope	Setting	Available only in
AppPrivacy	Computer	Let Windows apps take screenshots of various windows or displays	Windows 11
AppPrivacy	Computer	Let Windows apps turn off the screenshot border	Windows 11
AppxPackageManager	Computer	Archive infrequently used apps	Windows 11
AppxPackageManager	Computer	Do not allow sideloaded apps to auto-update in the background	Windows 11
AppxPackageManager	Computer	Do not allow sideloaded apps to auto-update in the background on a metered network	Windows 11
CloudContent	Computer	Turn off cloud consumer account state content	Windows 11
CloudContent	User	Turn off Spotlight collection on Desktop	Windows 11
ControlPanelDisplay	Computer	Prevent lock screen background motion	Windows 11
DataCollection	Computer	Limit Diagnostic Log Collection	Windows 11
DataCollection	Computer	Limit Dump Collection	Windows 11
DeliveryOptimization	Computer	Discovery Mode: Local Discovery	Windows 11
DnsClient	Computer	Configure DNS over HTTPS (DoH) name resolution	Windows 11
EAIME	User	Configure Korean IME version	Windows 11
FileSys	Computer	Enable NTFS non-paged pool usage	Windows 11
FileSys	Computer	NTFS parallel flush threshold	Windows 11
FileSys	Computer	NTFS parallel flush worker threads	Windows 11
FileSys	Computer	Configure NTFS default tier	Windows 11
Globalization	Both	Restrict Language Pack and Language Feature Installation	Windows 11
InetRes	Both	Replace JScript by loading JScript9Legacy in place of JScript via MSHTML/WebOC.	Windows 11
Netlogon	Computer	Use lowercase DNS host names when registering domain controller SRV records	Windows 11
NewsAndInterests	Computer	Allow News and Interests	Windows 11
Sam	Computer	Configuration settings for the Security Account Manager	Windows 11
Sensors	Computer	Force instant Wake	Windows 11
Sensors	Computer	Force instant Lock	Windows 11
Sensors	Computer	Configure Lock Timeout	Windows 11
StartMenu	Both	Locked Start Layout: Re-Apply Layout at every logon	Windows 11
StartMenu	Both	Show or hide "Most used" list from Start menu	Windows 11
TaskBar	Computer	Configure the Chat icon on the taskbar	Windows 11
TenantRestrictions	Computer	Configure Cloud Policy Details	Windows 11
TerminalServer	Computer	Enable auto-subscription	Windows 11
TerminalServer	Computer	Do not allow location redirection	Windows 11
TerminalServer	Computer	Allow UI Automation redirection	Windows 11
WindowsDefender	Computer	Configure scheduled task times randomization window	Windows 11
WindowsDefender	Computer	Define the directory path to copy support log files	Windows 11
WindowsDefender	Computer	Configure IP Address Exclusions	Windows 11
WindowsDefender	Computer	Turn on script scanning	Windows 11
WindowsDefender	Computer	Allow Microsoft Defender Antivirus to update and communicate over a metered connection	Windows 11
WindowsDefender	Computer	Configure Network Protection to be allowed to be configured into block or audit mode on Windows Server	Windows 11
WindowsDefender	Computer	Control datagram processing for network protection	Windows 11
Sandbox	Computer	Allow vGPU sharing for Windows Sandbox	Windows 11
Sandbox	Computer	Allow networking in Windows Sandbox	Windows 11
Sandbox	Computer	Allow audio input in Windows Sandbox	Windows 11
Sandbox	Computer	Allow video input in Windows Sandbox	Windows 11
Sandbox	Computer	Allow printer sharing with Windows Sandbox	Windows 11
Sandbox	Computer	Allow clipboard sharing with Windows Sandbox	Windows 11
WindowsUpdate		<Changes in folder structure>	Windows 11

ADMX name	Scope	Setting	Available only in
DataCollection	Both	Allow Telemetry: Enhanced	Windows 10
DeliveryOptimization	Computer	Download Mode: Bypass	Windows 10
EAIME	User	Turn on Live Sticker	Windows 10
EAIME	User	Turn on lexicon update	Windows 10
InetRes	Both	Turn off Adobe Flash in Internet Explorer and prevent applications from using Internet Explorer technology to instantiate Flash objects	Windows 10
InetRes	Both	Reset zoom to default for HTML dialogs in Internet Explorer mode	Windows 10
MicrosoftEdge	Both	Suppress the display of Edge Deprecation Notification	Windows 10
Printing	Computer	Limit print driver installation to Administrators	Windows 10
TerminalServer	Computer	Set the Remote Desktop licensing mode: AAD per User	Windows 10
WindowsDefender	Computer	Scan packed executables	Windows 10

Further resources you might find useful:

GPO Settings Reference Spreadsheet for Windows 10 21H2

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=103668

GPO Settings Reference Spreadsheet for Windows 11 21H2

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=103506

ADMX templates for Windows 10 21H2

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=103667

ADMX templates for Windows 11 21H2

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=103507

Edit 03/02/22: Please note that the list of differences shown above may not be complete. This is just a guiding reference. Also, there may be updated ADMX versions, which change the number of differences between Windows 10 and Windows 11 ADMX in either way. The table above shows differences at time of writing this article.

Edit: 07/02/22: Re-wrote some parts of the article because it could be misunderstood.

Edit: 21/07/23: All differences have been compensated now. See blue box on top for more details.

Updated Jul 26, 2023

Version 8.0

HelmutWagensonner

hewagen

Microsoft

Joined August 23, 2018

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70 Comments

Pascal_Tieg
Copper Contributor
Jan 21, 2022
hewagen Any feedback on above questions?
Justin4567
Copper Contributor
Jan 20, 2022
This is terrible. Microsoft seems to lack any understanding or empathy for organisations trying to manage their products or they wouldn't introduce this mess. Do better Microsoft.
frozenak
Copper Contributor
Jan 20, 2022
What about those of us using AGPM for change control, history, auditing, and delegation?
Pascal_Tieg
Copper Contributor
Jan 19, 2022
Karl-WE Yeah, that's what I figured. Just would love to have it confirmed by MS.
Karl-WE
MVP
Jan 19, 2022
Pascal_Tieg depends on how you use it but by design of using Central Store for ADMX, it does affect Windows Server as well as I've outlined above.
Pascal_Tieg
Copper Contributor
Jan 19, 2022
Also, does this only effect Win10 & Win11? Or Server 2022 and below as well?
Pascal_Tieg
Copper Contributor
Jan 19, 2022
What a mess. It's gonna be a pain to manage both worlds (Win10 & 11) in transition phase.

Microsoft you can do better.
Karl-WE
MVP
Jan 19, 2022
hewagen what's also missing in the Windows 11 ADMX is the OS filtering option.
It ends with Windows 10.

When you open the GPMC and edit a GPO or local GP Editor you can right click on ADMX templates (in central store or local) and use a very sufficient filter, which has been maintained for decades now.

Windows 11 is the exception. There's no new OS category for this OS.

Can you please ask the team why we cannot filter for Windows 11 anymore if the Windows 11 ADMX introduced OS build specific settings?

In practice the central store is used to manage Windows Server and Windows Client OS, no matter the version, starting with XP/2003 or Vista/2008.

This should not been changed. The workaround in the blog is not helpful for common management scenarios.

Generally admins should not use their own devices to execute management tasks but a seperate host and user dedicated to these elevated tasks.
Karl-WE
MVP
Jan 18, 2022
Thanks for your article hewagen.

As a Senior IT expert helping customers with the transition, which includes maintaining their GPO my main questions / concerns are:

1. Why does Microsoft maintain two ADMX policy sets in the first place? The Windows 11 ADMX should contain all settings and should be highly compatible with Windows 10 21H2 or earlier supported versions. It baffles me to be honest.

2. Why is the Windows 10 21H2 kept being updated and the other Windows 11 21H2 ADMX not being updated for a long time now, and as such missing settings?
There is nothing worse than GPP or registry hacks imho if it is avoidable.

3. Microsoft should understand this approach is not feasible. Even more we now have no further SAC but GAC starting with 21H2, the efforts to combine the templates should be considered. The gap, as per example below, can only get worse.

EXAMPLE:
hewagen your table is missing a difference in both settings, the setting is (still) missing in Windows 11 ADMX, due them being pretty much outdated compared to the Windows 10 21H2 ADMX. The release of Windows 11 ADMX missed this change by 2 days a week only , which now cause uneccessary confusion.

References:
KB5005010: Restricting installation of new printer drivers after applying the July 6, 2021 updates (microsoft.com)
KB5005652—Manage new Point and Print default driver installation behavior (CVE-2021-34481) (microsoft.com)

Set RestrictDriverInstallationToAdministrators using Group Policy
After installing updates released October 12, 2021 or later, you can also set RestrictDriverInstallationToAdministrators using a Group Policy, using the following instructions:
Open the group policy editor tool and go to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Printers.
Set the Limits print driver installation to Administrators setting to "Enabled". This will set the registry value of RestrictDriverInstallationToAdministrators to 1.
Malte
Brass Contributor
Jan 17, 2022
quite bad if your company have W10 and 11 (e.g. due to transition phase)

Blog Post

Windows 10 or Windows 11 GPO ADMX - Which One To Use For Your Central Store?

Set RestrictDriverInstallationToAdministrators using Group Policy