I have been reviewing ADMX Migrator some time ago. This free Microsoft tool isn’t just useful to migrate your ADM files to ADMX templates. In my view, its biggest value is that you can create and edit Group Policy templates with a GUI tool without having to deal with XML. That is you won’t have to see one single angle bracket. There are no revolutionary new features in the version 1.2. But I would recommend getting it anyway since it also fixes some bugs.

XML is absolutely en vogue. There is no doubt about that. However, editing Group Policy templates became much more difficult with the introduction of XML as the standard format. ADMX files are much harder to read and edit than ADM templates. This is at least true for humans. Machines probably like XML more. If you are able to understand this write up, you probably are human (and a Windows administrator). Therefore, ADMX Migrator is a must-have tool for you.

The new features are (I just copied that form the download site):

• Enhancements and bug fixes to support a wider range of ADM templates for conversion to ADMX.
• Enhancements to code and documentation for conversion error reporting and warnings.
• Improved handling of internationalized ADMX templates.

If you want to play a little with ADMX Migrator, you can just load one of the ADMX templates that come along with Vista. To do so, launch ADMX Migrator, right click on ADMX Templates and then on “Load”. It is a bit strange that one can’t find the Load function in the menus of ADMX Migrator. The ADMX files that come with Vista are under C: \Windows\PolicyDefinitions.