With the service release of 2208 of MEM Intune, we saw the announcement of the public preview feature that will enable an Intune admin to import custom and 3rd-party party ADMX/ADML templates into the MEM admin center. Once imported, they can be used to create device configuration profiles and assigned to managed devices.
This blog post is to check out this new feature as it is in its public preview.
Table of Contents
Import custom and 3rd-party ADMX/ADML into MEM Intune
In the MEM Admin center, navigate to Devices -> Configuration Profiles and you should see the appearance of the new tab Import ADMX. Within the tab, you have the Import button which you can use to import your custom and 3rd-party party ADMX/ADML templates into MEM.
Upload your ADMX and ADML file and (specify the language of your ADML file)*, then select Next.
In Review + Create, review your changes. Select Create to import the files.
The main blade lists all your imported ADMX templates from where you can also see the Status.
You can also delete any imported ADMX template from here, if required.
For example, if you need to update/replace an imported ADMX file, you will need to delete existing configuration profiles using the existing ADMX settings, delete the original ADMX file and then import the new version and create a new config profile/policy with it.
Things you need to be aware of importing custom ADMX/ADML into MEM Intune
- Currently, ADMX import only support ADMX/ADML file in the
En-USlanguage. - A maximum of
10ADMX files can be uploaded. - Each ADMX file must be
1 Mbor smaller. - If the ADMX file you are trying to import has any dependency on other ADMX as a prerequisite, then that ADMX needs to be imported first.
This is important to note if you are working to import ADMX/ADML like Firefox, since to import the firefox.admx and firefox.adml files, you will first need to import the mozilla.admx and mozilla.adml files.
Check the Microsoft documentation to know about the current limitations.
Create device configuration profile based on imported ADMX
To use the imported ADMX, you need to create a device configuration profile for Windows, platform type Windows 10 and later, profile type Templates, and then choose the template Imported Administrative templates (Preview) to start creating the profile.
Give a Name and Description (optional) to the profile and click on Next.
From the Configuration settings pane, you can choose to configure the settings that are made available by the imported ADMX as required.
Make the necessary configuration for Scope tags and Assignment and finally on the Review + create tab, review the config as made and click on Create to confirm the profile creation.
And that’s all.
Validate deployment of imported ADMX configuration profile
You can validate the profile deployment as usual from the MEM Admin center.
On the device end, an easy way to check for the imported ADMX configured settings is using the registry.
Ending Thoughts
If you have been working with MEM Intune, you may be already aware of the infamous ADMX ingestion that gave us the ability to work with custom/3rd-party ADMX via the custom OMA-URI path. But it was not very IT-admin friendly, to be honest. The process of creating configurations for ingested ADMX via the OMA-URI was tedious and error-prone.
This new feature in the public preview is the same ability that was already present, albeit, now presented to us as a native GUI functionality, that makes the whole process of working with custom and 3rd-party ADMX/ADML with MEM Intune, much easier and simpler.
Joymalya Basu Roy is an Indian IT professional with around 6.5 years of work experience in IT Software Support and Services. Having completed his B.Tech in Computer Science and Engineering back in 2015, he is 30 years old as of 2022, ethnolinguistically a Bengali, and hails from the Indian city of Kolkata, West Bengal. Presently associated with Atos as a Senior Consultant – Architect, he works in Digital Workplace T&T projects leading the build & deployment, adoption, and support of Microsoft Intune across greenfield/brownfield environments for Android/iOS/Windows. He is also honored to be recognized as a Microsoft MVP for Enterprise Mobility – 2021 and 2022-23.