List of different Group Policy Templates (Updated)

Active Directory group policies, also called Group Policy Object (GPO), are one of my core topics. I have a lot to do with this in various projects and as a Microsoft trainer. As a result, I have accumulated a number of templates and links. This link collection should make your search a little easier. Only templates of the respective manufacturers or projects are listed here. I have deliberately avoided third-party guidelines.

Do you know a template that is missing? Please write me a comment or a mail with the link. I will update this list.

Notes on the changes to group policies

Before making changes to the GPOs, it is essential to make a backup. If you don’t always want to back up the entire domain controller, or if you use special software such as the AGMT or corresponding data backup solutions, I can help you. In the article “Backing up and documenting group policies correctly“, I present a suitable PowerShell script of mine, with a download link in the Microsoft TechNet Gallery. The GPO Central Store should also be backed up, which the script can also do.

Microsoft

Windows Clients before Windows 10

Windows 10

Windows 11

Templates for Windows 11 are backwards compatible with Windows 10, but some settings only work with Windows 11.

Windows Server

Microsoft Office

Further administrative templates from Microsoft

Adobe

For the Acrobat series, Adobe has extensive documentation on the subject of group policies and corporate functions. This is in English. Among other things, topics such as UE-V and software distribution are described. Personally, I would advise against distributing Acrobat Reader via GPO, even if Adobe explains it.

I recommend that you take a look at my article“Unattended Installation of Software“, which describes the 2 CMD commands that can be used to install Acrobat Reader.

Acrobat Reader

Abobe Acrobat

Google

  • Chrome Enterprise – The Chrome Enterprise package download includes ADMX templates with more than 300 user and device policies.
  • Google Updater – Can be downloaded additionally on the Chrome Enterprise page, but is also part of the package.
  • Chromium Projects – Chromium is the open source portion of Chrome. The policies for this also work with Chrome. I would still rather go for Chrome Enterprise.

Other group policy templates

Further links and comments

Before comments come in because of this, yes some of these operating systems are already out of their support lifecycle, but nevertheless they are still sometimes used in certain environments. For this reason I have also mentioned some “legacy” products. If you want to get an overview of the topic of product lifecycles and Microsoft, I recommend my article“Product lifecycles – The often forgotten entity“.

Here are further links on the topic of group policies. But these articles are written in German:

Updates

10.07.2019: Note on updated Office 365 ADMX template14
.02.2020: Note on updated Office 365 ADMX template, Windows 10 1903 and 1909 added

12.03.2020: Note on Edge Chromium template

12.05.2020: Updated version number on 1903 and Office 365 ProPlus, added new name to Office Policay

17.02.2021: Added Microsoft Windows 20H2, Microsoft FSLogix, Adobe Acrobat 2020, Adobe Acrobat Reader 2020, Lenovo, VMware, Zoom, FoxIt Reader and others. Microsoft 365 Apps for Business Updated.

01.07.2021: Added Microsoft Windows 10 21H1, updated Windows 10 20H2 and Microsoft 365 Apps

09.11.2021: Waited until after Ignite for possible releases. Windows 11 added and Office 365 updated.

01.05.2023: Windows GPOs updated, others included.


Note to this article

This article was automatically translated from German from our German partner blog InfrastrukturHelden.de.