Administrative Templates
Go ahead and edit a GPO, any GPO, so that you have the Group Policy Management Editor open in front of you. Expand the Policies folder for either Computer Configuration, User Configuration, or both, and you will notice a folder inside each called Administrative Templates. Most of us generally think of Administrative Templates the same as any other GPO configuration setting, simply a collection of items with which you can manipulate users or computers, right? Sort of, but while Software Settings and Windows Settings are built into Group Policy and are basically the same for any domain environment, Administrative Templates are customizable.
Administrative Templates showcase the flexibility of Group Policy. Each setting within Administrative Templates is being pulled from template files that reside on your domain controller servers. These template files are ADMX files. All of the information needed to display the setting inside Group Policy Management Editor...