Alan Agreed. I asked for such flexibility early in the process of Vista dev but alas, it went unheeded. Perhaps another option is to create a junction point on the client editing the GP that points to an alternate location with the same name as the Central Store. This is just pure speculation as to whether this would work but I wonder. From: gptalk-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:gptalk-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Alan & Margaret Sent: Thursday, July 17, 2008 5:50 PM To: gptalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [gptalk] Re: How to test new ADMX files Hi Darren, Your assumption is correct. It does ignore it and doesn't give an error message. Still, it is a rather messy solution. if you want to replace an ADMX file, you have to make it unreadable to the tester and the new version readable only by the tester. And you are still changing security on a production system. With ADM files I was always able to convince Managers that it was safe to create a new GPO to test in, set the APPLY security so I was the only one to receive it and give me WRITE access to the Policy. Now I need them to fiddle security in the PolicyDefinitions directory as well. Maybe I need a test domain. But I would love a registry key to point me to a different PolicyDefiniton Directory.. Alan Cuthbertson _____ From: gptalk-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:gptalk-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Darren Mar-Elia Sent: Friday, 18 July 2008 9:29 AM To: gptalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [gptalk] Re: How to test new ADMX files Alan- How about permissioning the test ADMX file in the central store such that only a couple of test administrators can read it? If it can't be read, I would presume that GP Editor would simply not try to load it? Darren From: gptalk-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:gptalk-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Alan & Margaret Sent: Thursday, July 17, 2008 4:18 PM To: gptalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [gptalk] How to test new ADMX files All (especially Darren!) I am trying to work out how to test ADMX files when I have a Central repository in place. I cannot work out a way to do this without putting the entire domain at risk. Once you have created the Central repository, all users on the domain use it. I cannot see any way to point them back to the local copy under Windows or to any other location. I had thought I could use GPEDIT to edit my Local Policy and (hopefully) pick up the local ADMX files. But GPEDIT doesn't support ADMX files and GPME only supports GPO's and always looks at the Central repository if it is present. The only options would seem to be:- . Have a separate domain for the testing (an overkill if it is just to test the ADMX files) . Don't use the central repository, just the local directory for all users (A maintenance nightmare) . Assume that the ADMX file will have no syntax errors and just throw it in. Admittedly the last option is not as bad as you may think. If it is wrong it will only impact users trying to edit Admin Template entries and it can be easily reversed. However most managers like to have change control on such things! Alan Cuthbertson