Prerequisites
Before you begin, make sure you have the following:
- 1. Access to Microsoft Intune: Ensure you have a license assigned that provides access to Intune, and at least an Intune Administrator role in Entra ID
- 2. Custom ADMX and ADML Files: Download the necessary files from the application's vendor
Steps
In this example, we'll be uploading the Google Chrome Enterprise ADMX templates.
1. Gather your ADMX Files: Make sure that you have both the ADMX (.admx) file(s) AND the corresponding ADML (.adml) files in the appropriate language folder (e.g "en-us"). If you are using ADMX files from a third-party application vendor, this is usually already done for you.
2. Open the Intune admin center. Go to Devices > Configuration > Import ADMX and click "Import"
3. Select and upload your ADMX/ADML files in the respective fields.
4. Click Next and review your uploads. If everything looks good, select Create
5. You should now see your uploads pending! Don't be surprised if this takes a few moments to finish.
Handling Upload Errors
Occasionally, ADMX imports to Intune will fail, usually due to a missing dependency. In our example, our Google Chrome ADMX files failed to upload because of a "NamespaceMissing:Google.Policies" error. This means that the ADMX files we attempted to upload depend on one or more other ADMX templates that we haven't uploaded to Intune before. Thankfully, this missing file is already included in the ADMX/ADML files we downloaded from Google Chrome's website. The fix is as easy as repeating the process to upload these files, and then re-uploading our Google Chrome ADMX files.
- 1. Start fresh by deleting any failed imports. In the Import ADMX list, click on the three dots next to the failed upload(s) and click Delete. Note that it may take a few moment for the failed imports to be removed completely.
- 2. Repeat the upload process to import the missing dependencies.
- 3. Once the missing dependencies have been successfully uploaded, attempt to upload the original ADMX templates you wanted to import.
Handling ADMX file referenced not found NamespaceMissing:Microsoft.Policies.Windows
If you receive the NamespaceMissing:Microsoft.Policies.Windows error, the fix is thankfully pretty easy (though annoying!). This is a fairly common error, especially if you're importing ADMX files into Intune for the first time, as many third-party templates will make use of the Windows namespace.
- 1. Start fresh by deleting any failed imports. In the Import ADMX list, click on the three dots next to the failed upload(s) and click Delete. Note that it may take a few moment for the failed imports to be removed completely.
- 2. On a Windows device, look in "C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions" for "Windows.admx". If you don't have this file, you can download and install the Administrative Templates (.admx) for Windows 11 from Microsoft here. Make note of the output location of the installer and locate the "Windows.admx" file there (usually something like "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Group Policy\Windows 11 October 2023 Update (23H2)\PolicyDefinitions" by default)
- 3. Upload the appropriate "Windows.admx" and "Windows.adml" templates into Intune.
- 4. Retry your original ADMX imports.
Conclusion
Importing ADMX templates into Intune is a great way to achieve additional configuration capabilities over your managed devices! However, it's not always a s straightforward as we might wish. We hope this article has been helpful and encourage your to reach out for all of your Microsoft consulting needs! Whether its Intune, Exchange, Server, or something else, we're happy to help!
