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Use Windows 10/11 templates to configure group policy settings in Microsoft Intune

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Administrative Templates in Microsoft Intune include thousands of settings that control features in Microsoft Edge version 77 and later, Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Microsoft Office programs, remote desktop, OneDrive, passwords, PINs, and more. These settings allow administrators to create group policies using the cloud.

This feature applies to:

  • Windows 11
  • Windows 10

The Intune templates are 100% cloud-based, are built in to Intune (no downloading), and don't require any customizations, including using OMA-URI. They offer a straight-forward way to configure the settings, and find the settings you want:

  • The Windows settings are similar to group policy (GPO) settings in on-premises Active Directory (AD). These settings are built in to Windows, and are ADMX-backed settings that use XML.

  • The Office, Microsoft Edge, and Visual Studio settings are ADMX-ingested, and use the same administrative template files that you would download in on-premises environments.

  • You can import custom and third party ADMX and ADML files. For more information, including the steps, go to Import custom or partner ADMX files.

When managing devices in your organization, you want to create groups of settings that apply to different device groups. You also want a simple view of the settings you can configure. You can complete this task using Administrative Templates in Microsoft Intune.

As part of your mobile device management (MDM) solution, use these template settings as a one-stop shop to manage your Windows client devices.

This article lists the steps to create a template for Windows client devices, and shows how to filter all the available settings in Intune. When you create the template, it creates a device configuration profile. You can then assign or deploy this profile to Windows client devices in your organization.

Before you begin

Create the template

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Intune admin center.

  2. Select Devices > Manage devices > Configuration > Create > New policy.

  3. Enter the following properties:

    • Platform: Select Windows 10 and later.
    • Profile type: To use a logical grouping of settings, select Templates > Administrative Templates. To see all the settings, select Settings catalog.

  4. Select Create.

  5. In Basics, enter the following properties:

    • Name: Enter a descriptive name for the profile. Name your profiles so you can easily identify them later. For example, a good profile name is ADMX: Windows 10/11 admin template that configures xyz settings in Microsoft Edge.
    • Description: Enter a description for the profile. This setting is optional, but recommended.

  6. Select Next.

  7. Add the settings:

    In Configuration settings, select All settings to see an alphabetical list of all the settings. Or, configure settings that apply to devices (Computer configuration), and settings that apply to users (User configuration):

    Screenshot that shows how to select All Settings using ADMX template policy in Microsoft Intune.

  8. When you select All settings, every setting is listed. Scroll down to use the before and next arrows to see more settings:

    See a sample list of settings and use previous and next buttons in Intune admin center and Microsoft Intune.

  9. Select any setting. For example, filter on Office, and select Activate Restricted Browsing. A detailed description of the setting is shown. Choose Enabled, Disabled, or leave the setting as Not configured (default). The detailed description also explains what happens when you choose Enabled, Disabled, or Not configured.

    Tip

    The Windows settings in Intune correlate to the on-premises group policy path you see in Local Group Policy Editor (gpedit).

  10. When you select Computer configuration or User configuration, the setting categories are shown. You can select any category to see the available settings.

    For example, select Computer configuration > Windows components > Internet Explorer to see all the device settings that apply to Internet Explorer:

    See all device settings that apply to Internet Explorer in Microsoft Intune and Intune admin center

  11. Select OK to save your changes.

    Continue to go through the list of settings, and configure the settings you want in your environment. Here are some examples:

    • Use the VBA Macro Notification Settings setting to handle VBA macros in different Microsoft Office programs, including Word and Excel.
    • Use the Allow file downloads setting to allow or prevent downloads from Internet Explorer.
    • Use Require a password when a computer wakes (plugged in) to prompt users for a password when devices wake from sleep mode.
    • Use the Download unsigned ActiveX controls setting to block users from downloading unsigned ActiveX controls from Internet Explorer.
    • Use the Turn off System Restore setting to allow or prevent users from running a system restore on the device.
    • Use the Allow importing of favorites setting to allow or block users from importing favorites from another browser into Microsoft Edge.
    • And more...

  12. Select Next.

  13. In Scope tags (optional), assign a tag to filter the profile to specific IT groups, such as US-NC IT Team or JohnGlenn_ITDepartment. For more information about scope tags, go to Use role-based access control (RBAC) and scope tags for distributed IT.

    Select Next.

  14. In Assignments, select the user or groups that will receive your profile. For more information on assigning profiles, go to Assign user and device profiles in Intune.

    If the profile is assigned to user groups, then configured ADMX settings apply to any device that the user enrolls, and signs in to. If the profile is assigned to device groups, then configured ADMX settings apply to any user that signs into that device. This assignment happens if the ADMX setting is a computer configuration (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE), or a user configuration (HKEY_CURRENT_USER). With some settings, a computer setting assigned to a user can also affect the experience of other users on that device.

    For more information, go to User groups vs. device groups when assigning policies.

    Select Next.

  15. In Review + create, review your settings. When you select Create, your changes are saved, and the profile is assigned. The policy is also shown in the profiles list.

The next time the device checks for configuration updates, the settings you configured are applied.

Find some settings

There are thousands of settings available in these templates. To make it easier to find specific settings, use the built-in features:

  • In your template, select the Settings, State, Setting type, or Path columns to sort the list. For example, select the Path column, and use the next arrow to see the settings in the Microsoft Excel path.

  • In your template, use the Search box to find specific settings. You can search by setting, or path. For example, select All settings, and search for copy. All the settings with copy are shown:

    Search for copy to show all the device settings in administrative templates in Microsoft Intune and Intune admin center.

    In another example, search for microsoft word. You see the settings you can set for the Microsoft Word program. Search for explorer to see the Internet Explorer settings you can add to your template.

  • You can also narrow your search by only selecting Computer configuration or User configuration.

    For example, to see all the available Internet Explorer user settings, select User configuration, and search for Internet Explorer. Only the IE settings that apply to users are shown:

    In the ADMX template, select user configuration, and search or filter for Internet Explorer in Microsoft Intune.

Create a Known Issue Rollback (KIR) policy

On your enrolled devices, you can use administrative templates to create a Known Issue Rollback (KIR) policy, and deploy this policy to your Windows devices. For the specific steps, go to Deploy a KIR activation using Microsoft Intune ADMX policy ingestion to managed devices.

For more information on KIR, and what it is, go to:

Next steps