Issues when editing Windows XP SP2 group policy objects

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I’m working with Microsoft on a client site and one of the potential issues we raised today was around the impact of the new group policy settings supporting Windows XP SP2. SP2 provides administrators with .ADM templates for 1378 group policy settings (although only 87 seem to relate specifically to SP2; 1 more to computers with SP2 or BITS 2.0; and a further 518 to Internet Explorer 6.0 in Windows XP SP2). Full details are available from Microsoft; however there are issues that need to be resolved with a hotfix when editing policies that use the new .ADM templates on non-Windows XP SP2 computers, as described in Microsoft knowledge base article 842933.

Microsoft have also published a white paper providing best practice for managing Windows XP SP2 features using group policy.