Overview of AGPM

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Microsoft Advanced Group Policy Management (AGPM) extends the capabilities of the Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) to provide comprehensive change control and improved management for Group Policy objects (GPOs). AGPM is available as part of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) for Software Assurance.

Using AGPM, you can do these tasks:

  • Perform offline editing of GPOs so that you can create and test them before you deploy them to a production environment.

  • Maintain multiple versions of a GPO in a central archive so that you can roll back if a problem occurs.

  • Share the responsibility for editing, approving, and reviewing GPOs among multiple people by using role-based delegation.

  • Eliminate the danger of multiple Group Policy administrators overwriting one another's work by using the check-in and check-out capability for GPOs.

  • Analyze changes to a GPO, comparing it to another GPO or another version of the same GPO by using difference reporting.

  • Simplify creating new GPOs by using GPO templates, storing common policy settings and preference settings to use as starting points for new GPOs.

  • Delegate access to the production environment (AGPM 3.0 and later versions).

  • Search for GPOs with specific attributes and filter the list of GPOs displayed (AGPM 4.0).

  • Export a GPO to a file so that you can copy it from a domain in a test forest to a domain in a production forest (AGPM 4.0).

How to obtain AGPM software

AGPM is available as part of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) for Software Assurance. For information about how to obtain licenses for MDOP, see How to Buy.

Additional references

For more information about the capabilities and benefits of AGPM, see the Overview of Microsoft Advanced Group Policy Management.

For information about how to install and evaluate AGPM, see a step-by-step guide:

For information about how to plan a deployment of AGPM, see a planning guide: