BARCELONA, Spain, Tech-Ed: IT Forum, Nov. 14, 2006 -- FullArmor, a leader in enterprise policy management, today announced the availability of ADMX Migrator, which simplifies the conversion of Group Policy ADM Templates to the new ADMX format being introduced with Windows Vista. Microsoft has licensed ADMX Migrator from FullArmor, which is available for free distribution to Windows Vista customers. It is available at: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=77409. FullArmor also announced that it will use Windows PowerShell in future management products to enable script-based automation of Group Policy management functions. FullArmor CTO Danny Kim will demonstrate ADMX Migrator at the Tech-Ed: IT Forum Conference this week during the Manageability Improvements in Windows Vista (WCL315) session.
One Click Conversion from ADM to ADMX
Windows Vista Group Policy will replace Administrative Templates files (ADM) with an XML-based file format for describing Group Policy settings. This new format, called ADMX, incorporates multilanguage support, an optional centralized datastore, and version control functions missing in the ADM schema. To take advantage of these capabilities, organizations must create Group Policy templates using the ADMX format. FullArmor ADMX Migrator enables administrators, with the click of a mouse, to select and convert any number of ADMs to ADMX. The newly created ADMX templates will natively support all the benefits provided by the ADMX schema. ADMX Migrator is a snap-in for the Microsoft Management Console (MMC).
"With the release of ADMX Migrator, FullArmor is extending to Windows Vista its rich tradition of making Group Policy easier to manage, and Microsoft is excited about licensing it to provide this capability to Windows Vista users," said Praerit Garg, Sr. Director, Windows & Enterprise Management Division for Microsoft. "By developing future products integrated with PowerShell, FullArmor will harness the power of advanced scripting to help IT professionals transform the way they create and maintain Group Policy settings. Microsoft is pleased that FullArmor is delivering innovative Windows Vista management solutions."
Automated ADMX Creation and Editing
To eliminate the current manual and time consuming process of creating ADMX templates, FullArmor developed a template creation utility as part of ADMX Migrator. This Graphical User Interface (GUI) automates the editing and creation of ADMX formatted files. ADMX Migrator provides point and click facilities to create an ADMX template for new registry-based settings introduced into a Group Policy Object (GPO). The template describes the new settings and their associated values.
"Manually recreating ADM templates in the new ADMX format is a long, tedious, and costly process," said Danny Kim, CTO for FullArmor. "ADMX Migrator automates the ADM conversion process so organizations that deploy Windows Vista can apply the benefits of the ADMX schema to the Group Policy settings they have worked so hard to define and implement under Windows 2000 and Windows XP."
Windows PowerShell-based Group Policy Tools
FullArmor is also adopting Windows PowerShell, Microsoft's new command-line shell and scripting language, to improve control over and accelerate automation of Group Policy settings. Future FullArmor products will enable customers to navigate and modify Group Policy settings directly from the command line and using scripts.
Pricing and Availability
ADMX Migrator is available immediately at no cost from Microsoft and FullArmor.
About FullArmor
FullArmor Corporation develops software that helps organizations manage their IT environment more securely and effectively while leveraging investments in Group Policy and Active Directory. The company is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner. More than 5 million users and 1,500 organizations worldwide rely on technology developed by FullArmor. For more information visit us on the web at www.fullarmor.com or call 800.653.1783.
