I'm in the process of upgrading our Active Directory Group Policy administrative templates to the Windows 11 25H2 ADMX files. However, I've come across conflicting advice from various experts. Some recommend making a backup of the existing files and then simply overwriting them, while others suggest creating a new subfolder for the new ADMX files instead.
Currently, our ADMX files appear to be for a version of Windows 10 between v1809 and v1909, but I'm unsure which specific version since none of the .ADMX files have version info, and the original setup didn't follow best practices regarding subfolder organization. I'm leaning toward the option of overwriting the old files, but I'd love to get some insights from those who have experience with this. Which option would you recommend, and why? We're running Windows Server 2019 Domain Controllers with a functional level of 2016. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
2 Answers
Seriously, who are these 'experts' suggesting subfolders? Just overwriting the files is the way to go. It keeps things simple—subfolders are unnecessary.
From my experience, I make a backup first and then overwrite the existing ADMX files. I've been doing this since Windows 8 with no issues. It's straightforward and gets the job done without complicating things.
I saw it on some blog, but it didn’t make sense to me either. Stick to what’s practical.