Visual Studio Administrative Templates

This repository contains the administrative templates for the Visual Studio family of products.

These templates define what Visual Studio functionality can be centrally managed by group policy.

Testing locally

On Windows, you can test locally by leveraging the Windows Local Group Policy Editor:

Step 1: Download the templates or download the latest release

• Clone or fork the repository
• Browse the files until you find the applicable .admx file
• Download the latest release
  • https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/104405
• Install the application to insert the templates directly into the Windows policy definitions folder

Step 2: Insert downloaded templates into the Windows policy definitions folder

• Open File Explorer and navigate to the Policydefinitions folder:

  C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions

• Copy the desired .admx file into this location

  C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions\en-US

• Navigate into the applicable language folder next to the .admx file selected in Step 1
• Copy the .adml file into the respective Policydefinitions folder

Step 3: Test using the Local Group Policy Editor

• Open the Windows Local Group Policy Editor
• Navigate to the Administrative Templates > Microsoft Visual Studio node
• Apply the desired policy changes to Visual Studio

• Ensure the new group policy changes are applied to the respective product's path:

  Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\VisualStudio\

• Restart your Visual Studio instance to pickup the new policy changes

Note: Depending on your company's policy, you might need to to force a group policy update via gpupdate.exe to apply changes

Contributing

This project welcomes contributions and suggestions. Most contributions require you to agree to a Contributor License Agreement (CLA) declaring that you have the right to, and actually do, grant us the rights to use your contribution. For details, visit https://cla.opensource.microsoft.com.

When you submit a pull request, a CLA bot will automatically determine whether you need to provide a CLA and decorate the PR appropriately (e.g., status check, comment). Simply follow the instructions provided by the bot. You will only need to do this once across all repos using our CLA.

This project has adopted the Microsoft Open Source Code of Conduct. For more information see the Code of Conduct FAQ or contact opencode@microsoft.com with any additional questions or comments.

Trademarks

This project may contain trademarks or logos for projects, products, or services. Authorized use of Microsoft trademarks or logos is subject to and must follow Microsoft's Trademark & Brand Guidelines. Use of Microsoft trademarks or logos in modified versions of this project must not cause confusion or imply Microsoft sponsorship. Any use of third-party trademarks or logos are subject to those third-party's policies.