Windows XP Professional supports a superset of the Group Policy features supported by Windows 2000. These features are available by using updated extension components the clients, .adm files, and an updated Group Policy snap-in. 

If you upgrade an Active Directory GPO to support the new Windows XP policy settings, Windows 2000-based clients ignore any Windows XP-specific settings. This behavior occurs on a per-setting level; if a policy object contains a policy setting that is unsupported, all other supported policy settings from that policy object are applied.

To upgrade a Windows 2000 GPO, follow these steps on a Windows XP-based domain member: 

1. Click Start, click Run, type mmc, and then click OK.

2. On the File menu, click Add/Remove Snap-in.

3. In the Add/Remove Snap-in dialog box, click Add.

4. In the Add Standalone Snap-in dialog box, click Group Policy, and then click Add.

5. In the Select Group Policy Object dialog box, Local Computer appears as the target object. Click Browse, select the GPO that you want to upgrade, and then click OK. Note that when you click Browse, a delay might occur while Windows searches for the policy objects in the domain.

6. Click Close. Click OK.

You can now adjust the policy settings in this Policy object by using the Group Policy console from the Windows XP-based client.

The GPO is actually updated with the new administrative template (.adm) files when you click or expand Computer Configuration or User Configuration under the title of the Policy object. You can upgrade a single Policy object at a time by using this method.

Note: The Windows XP Group Policy snap-in works only in Windows XP Professional.

The Windows XP Group Policy snap-in implements a new feature that displays the operating system version that is required by an Administrative Template policy setting in the side pane in Extended view. The Windows 2000 Group Policy snap-in cannot display this version information, but can be used to modify the administrative template settings after being upgraded.

New Security settings are also supported in Windows XP. These are available by using the Windows XP Group Policy snap-in; they are not displayed by using the Windows 2000 Group Policy snap-in whether or not they are configured. Editing Security Microsoft recommends that you edit upgraded GPOs from Windows XP-based clients. You can perform subsequent management of these GPOs (such as linking them to domains or organizational units) from the Windows 2000 Active Directory management tools.