Forum Discussion
Microsoft goofed: Group Policy Office ADMX/ADML Problem
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=49030
That's the link MS gives to download the Office group Policy files. Everything works until you open GP and all the policies are in German.
Yes, I selected ENGLISH (it was the only option).
No, I can't speak German - wish I could.
I can't find these files anywhere else. PLEASE HELP.
Azure Server 2022 Datacenter - need latest Microsoft Office 365 ADMX/ADML files (which may still be the Office 2016 ones, nice job keeping up with the times, Microsoft).
1 Reply
hi Cathy_in_Maine try below
How to fix it [ Referal site: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=49030)
Download the correct English package
On the Microsoft download page → Select English and then download the admintemplates_x86_5527-1000_en-us.exe or admintemplates_x64-5527-1000_en-us.exe version.
Run it and extract to a folder (e.g., C:\OfficeADMX\).
Copy ADMX and ADML files to central store
On your DC (or PolicyDefinitions folder): \\<domain>\SYSVOL\<domain>\Policies\PolicyDefinitions\
Copy all .admx files from C:\OfficeADMX\adm\ (or equivalent) into this folder.
In the same PolicyDefinitions folder, copy only the en-US folder (from the extracted download) and its .adml files to PolicyDefinitions\en-US\.
Remove or override other languages
If the PolicyDefinitions\de-DE\ (German) folder also exists, and if you don’t use German policy descriptions, you can either remove it or ensure the en-US folder is recognized first.
Open GPMC → Preferences → Check the Language of your policy templates. If it’s still showing German, close and reopen GPMC.
Verify in GPMC
Open a policy editor (GPMC → Edit GPO)
Navigate to User Config → Administrative Templates → Microsoft Office 16.0 (or whichever version)
Check: Are the descriptions now in English?
Why you see German descriptions
The installer includes multiple language ADML files by default. If your “language” setting on the client/console is set to German or locale is de-DE, GPMC might load German ADML by default.
When the central store contains multiple languages, GPMC picks the folder matching the console’s UI language → If your Windows UI language is German, the German ADML folder might get chosen.
