Your company has an Active Directory forestthat contains Windows Server 2008 R2 domain controllers
and DNS servers.
All client computers run Windows XP SP3.
You need to use your client computers to edit domainbased GPOs by using the ADMX files that are
stored in the ADMX central store.
What should you do?

A.
Add your account to the Domain Admins group.

B.
Upgrade your client computers to Windows 7.

C.
Install .NET Framework 3.0 on your client computers.

D.
Create a folder on PDC emulator for the domain inthe PolicyDefinitions path. Copy the ADMX files tothe
PolicyDefinitions folder.

Explanation:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc709647%28v=ws.10%29.aspx
Managing Group Policy ADMX Files Step-by-Step Guide
Microsoft Windows Vista® and Windows Server 2008 introduce a new format for displaying registry-based
policy settings. Registry-based policy settings (located under the Administrative Templates category in the
Group Policy Object Editor) are defined using a standards-based, XML file format known as ADMX files. These
new files replace ADM files, which used their own markup language. The Group Policy tools —Group Policy
Object Editor and Group Policy Management Console—remain largely unchanged. In the majority of situations,
you will not notice the presence of ADMX files during your day-to-day Group Policy administration tasks.
http://blogs.technet.com/b/grouppolicy/archive/2008/12/17/questions-on-admx-in-windows-xp-and-windows-2003-environments.aspx
Questions on ADMX in Windows XP and Windows 2003 environments
We had a question a couple of days ago about the usage of ADMX template formats in Windows XP/Server
2003 environments. Essentially the question was:
“…What’s the supported or recommended way of getting W2k8 ADMX templates applying in a W2k3 domain
with or with no W2k8 DCs. What I’ve done in test is, created a central store in the /Sysvol/domain/policies folder
on the 2k3 DC (PDC) and created and edited a GPO using GPMC from the W2k8 member server applying to a
W2k8 machine and it seems to work just fine. Is this the right way to do it?…”
The answer is Yes. Again this is one of those things that confuse people. The template format has nothing to
do with the policy file that’s created. Its just used to create the policy by the administrative tool itself. In the case
of GPMC on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 and previous – this tool used the ADM file format. These
ADM files were copied into every policy object on the SYSVOL, which represents about 4MB of duplicatedbloat
per policy. This was one of the areas that caused major problems with an issue called SYSVOL bloat.
In Vista and Server 2008 this template format changed to ADMX. This was a complete change towards a new
XML based format that aimed to eliminate SYSVOL bloat. It doesn’t copy itself into every policy objectbut relies
on a central or local store of these templates (Note that even in the newer tools you can still importcustom
ADM files for stuff like Office etc).
In the question above, the person wanted to know ifcopying the local store, located under c:/windows/
policydefinitions, could be copied into a Windows Server 2003 domain environment as the central store and
referenced by the newer admin tools. Again the domain functional mode has little to do with Group Policy. I
talked about that one before. The things that we care about are the administrative tools and the client support
for the policy functions. So of course it can.
Here’s the confusion-reducing scoop – Group Policy as a platform only relies on two main factors. Active
Directory to store metadata about the policy objects and to allow client discoverability for the location of the
policy files. The other is the SYSVOL to store the policy files. So at its core that’s LDAP and SMB file shares.
Specific extensions on top of the policy platform may require certain domain functionality but that’s very specific
to that extension. Examples are the new Wireless policy and BitLocker extensions in Vista SP1. They require
schema updates – not GP itself. So if you don’t currently use them then you don’t have to update schema.
So provided you’re using Windows Vista SP1 with RSAT or Windows Server 2008 to administer the policies
you get all the benefits to manage downlevel clients. That means eliminating SYSVOL bloat. That means all the
joys of Group Policy Preferences. Honestly – it amazes us the amount of IT Pros that still haven’t discovered
GPP…especially with the power it has to practicallyeliminate logon scripts!
As a last point – IT Pros also ask us when we will be producing an updated GPMC version for Windows XPto
support all the new stuff. The answer is that we are not producing any updated GPMC versions for Windows XP
and Server 2003. All the new administrative work isbeing done on the newer platforms. So get moving ahead!
There are some really good benefits in the newer tools and very low impact to your current environment. You
only need a single Windows Vista SP1 machine to start!