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I have a question to ask regarding Windows Server 2012 R2, but before I ask let me give you some details about our environment.

  • We have a single forest, with a single domain, and our functional levels are both set to Server 2003.
  • We have a DC running Windows Server 2003 and a file server running Windows Server 2003
  • We have another 2 DCs running Windows Server 2008 R2
  • The rest of our server environment run indows Server 2008 R2 and we recently have installed some Windows Server 2012 R2 system to act as our RDS servers.

Now, as I am installing Server 2012 R2 servers to act as our RDS environment, I would like to create GPOs and apply them to Server 2012 R2; to customize the Start Menu wih our applications.

I have seen that we need to import the new server Server 2012 R2 ADMX and ADML files into our Group Policy central store and since we have a mixed environment of different versions of Microsoft servers, I am very cautious to just overwrite all other ADMX files and ADML files in case it affects existing GPOs that are applied to our environment.

I was wondering what is the best method to carrying this out? I thought that maybe prepping AD and installing an additional DC as Server 2012 R2 would be the best solution but I am not sure whether this will import the new ADMX and ADML files.

Any help will be much appreciated and please let me know if you would like any further information.

GregL
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Dean Carney
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  • Are there Start Screen customizations in Server 2012R2 Group Policy? I know there are NOT options in 2012, which is a pain. I'm asking somewhat rhetorically, as I'm about to go back to my desk and check! – blaughw Mar 25 '15 at 18:38
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    Your GPOs themselves will not be affected. I can't think of any GPO setting that was removed in a later version of an ADMX. And I've never heard of any precautions to take when updating the central store aside from the usual backup, etc. You can just download the ADMX files from MS; you don't need a 2012R2 DC. – Spamwich Mar 25 '15 at 20:31
  • And apparently I was wrong, one Windows 7/2008r2 setting (InputPersonalization.admx) was removed and rolled up into the Control Panel ADMX. But even that wouldn't break any existing GPOs using that setting unless you deliberately deleted InputPersonalization.admx. [link](http://blogs.technet.com/b/craigf/archive/2012/08/28/upgrading-the-admx-central-store-files-from-windows-7-2008r2-to-windows-8-2012.aspx) – Spamwich Mar 25 '15 at 20:42

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