admxgen

admxgen is a simple tool designed to help in generation of group policy template files. These files can be difficult to edit by hand, particularly when they become large. admxgen takes a simple json file and a csv file that can be edited in Microsoft Excel (or any text editor) and generates a properly formatted and cross-linked .admx and .adml file.

Usage

admxgen.exe [input_json_file] [output_filename]

Sample json settings file:

{
  "DisplayName": "Display Name",
  "Description": "Description",
  "Revision": "6.6",
  "MinRequiredRevision": "6.6",
  "SchemaVersion": "8.8",
  "TargetNamespace": {
    "Prefix": "NamespacePrefix",
    "Namespace": "NamespacePrefix.Policies"
  },
  "FallbackCulture": "en-US",
  "SupersededPolicyFiles": [
    "superseded.adm"
  ],
  "File": "checkBoxTest.csv"
}

Sample csv policy definitions file:

CategoryId	Category	Id	Display Name	Class	Type	Explanation	Registry Key	Value Name	SupportedOnId	Supported On	Properties
CategoryId	Category	CheckBoxSetting	Check Box Setting	Machine	checkBox	Description of check box setting.	Software\Company\Product	CheckBoxValueName	v1234	Company Product v1234
CategoryId	Category	DecimalSetting	Decimal Setting	User	decimal	Description of decimal setting.	Software\Company\Product	DecimalValueName	v4321	Company Product v4321	MinValue=0;MaxValue=10;Default=5
CategoryId	Category	EnabledSetting	Enabled Setting	Machine	enabled	Description of enabled setting.	Software\Company\Product	EnabledValueName
CategoryId	Category	EnumSetting	Enum Setting	User	enum	Description of enum setting.	Software\Company\Product	EnumValueName	v1234	Company Product v1234	Type=Decimal;Values=Option A:0|Option B:1
CategoryId	Category	TextBoxSetting	Text Box Setting	Machine	textBox	Description of text box setting.	Software\Company\Product	TextBoxValueName
CategoryId	Category	EnabledSetting2	Enabled Setting 2	Machine	enabledCheckBox	Description of setting.	Software\Company\Product	Enabled2
CategoryId	Category	EnabledSetting3	Enabled Setting 3	Machine	enabledDropDown	Description of setting.	Software\Company\Product	Enabled3

NOTE: In this format you will notice several columns that represent an Id. These values are very important, and admxgen will not find all the errors that may potentially be made when editing this column. There are some rules that should be followed with these columns:

1. Ids should be only alphanumeric characters or underscores (admxgen will detect and fail).
2. The CategoryId column is unique. It is a multi-value hierarchy separated by backslashes (as is the Category column), and MUST correlate to the values in Category. (admxgen will detect if there are a different number of columns in the two fields)
3. Ids should be unique.
   1. For Id values (the policy identifier) this is self explanatory: make them unique.
   2. For SupportedOnId values, each value here will generate a new definition in the admx, so they can be reused, but make sure that they are consistent.
   3. For CategoryId, you must ensure that each category is unique across the hierarchy, so a CategoryId of 'Product\Feature' will generate a category with id Product and one with id Feature. If you do something like 'AnotherProduct\Feature' on a different entry, you are essentially going to overwrite the first Feature category with a new one.

Supported policy types

Policy type	Description
checkBox	presents a checkbox where checked sets a DWORD to 1 and unchecked sets the DWORD to 0
enabledCheckBox	[alias for checkBox]
decimal	presents a decimal entry box, optionally specify min, max, and default values in properties
enabled	when enabled, creates the value, when disabled, removes the value
enum	presents a drop down list with values as specified in properties
textBox	presents a simple text entry that sets a string value
boolean	presents a drop down list with values Disabled and Enabled that set a DWORD to 0 and 1 respectively
enabledDropDown	[alias for boolean]