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Data Storage for Third-Party Group Policy Extensions

You can store your policy data in the file system or in the Active Directory if you do not store your data in the registry. If the policy data is less than 1 MB, it is best to store the data in the Active Directory using a Group Policy Container (GPC). If the policy data is greater than 1 MB, store the data in the file system using a Group Policy Template (GPT).

You can place a pointer to an outside store of Group Policy data for policy data that resides in the Active Directory or in the file system. However, this method is not recommended because it bypasses the mechanisms that Windows uses to back up, restore, delete, and replicate GPC and GPT files.

For more information about GPC and GPT, see Group Policy Storage.