The Group Policy Administrative Templates node contains all registry-based policy information. User configurations are saved in HKEY_CURRENT_USER (HKCU), and computer configurations are saved in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE (HKLM). The software policy settings include Group Policy for programs as well as for the Windows 2000 operating system and its components.
The namespace under the Administrative Templates node is populated by using .adm files or by an extension to Group Policy. When you use this node for the first time, the .adm files are automatically installed.
If you plan to create entries for the Administrative Templates node, you should populate the namespace using the following naming convention, which is also used in the registry:
\CompanyName\product\version (or \CompanyName\product&version)
For example, the operating system settings for Windows 2000 are in \Microsoft\Windows 2000.
The user interface that is displayed under the Administrative Templates nodes is populated by using .adm files. For this purpose, Windows 2000 is shipped with several .adm files. For a description of these files, see .adm files included with Windows 2000
For information on adding an .adm file, see To add or remove an Administrative Template (.adm file)
The Administrative Templates extension of Group Policy saves information in Registry.pol files. These files contain the customized registry settings that you specify (by using Group Policy) to be applied to the computer or user portion of the registry. One of the Registry.pol files contains the registry settings to be applied to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE registry key; it is stored in the GPT\Machine folder. The other Registry.pol file contains registry settings specific to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER key; it is stored in the GPT\User subdirectory.
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