windows-itpro-docs/windows/security/application-security/application-control/windows-defender-application-control/applocker/merge-applocker-policies-manually.md

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title	description	ms.localizationpriority	ms.topic	ms.date
Merge AppLocker policies manually	This topic for IT professionals describes the steps to manually merge AppLocker policies to update the Group Policy Object (GPO).	medium	conceptual	09/21/2017

Merge AppLocker policies manually

Note

Some capabilities of Windows Defender Application Control are only available on specific Windows versions. Learn more about the Windows Defender Application Control feature availability.

This topic for IT professionals describes the steps to manually merge AppLocker policies to update the Group Policy Object (GPO).

If you have created multiple AppLocker policies and need to merge them to create one AppLocker policy, you can either manually merge the policies or use the Windows PowerShell cmdlets for AppLocker. You can't automatically merge policies by using the AppLocker console. You must create one rule collection from two or more policies. For info about merging policies by using the cmdlet, see Merge AppLocker policies by using Set-ApplockerPolicy.

The AppLocker policy is saved in XML format, and the exported policy can be edited with any text or XML editor. Rule collections are specified within the RuleCollection Type element. The XML schema includes five attributes for the different rule collections, as shown in the following table:

Rule collection	RuleCollection Type element
Executable rules	Exe
Windows Installer rules	Msi
Script rules	Script
DLL rules	Dll
Packaged apps and packaged app installers	Appx

Rule enforcement is specified with the EnforcementMode element. The three enforcement modes in the XML correspond to the three enforcement modes in the AppLocker console, as shown in the following table:

XML enforcement mode	Enforcement mode in Group Policy
NotConfigured	Not configured (rules are enforced)
AuditOnly	Audit only
Enabled	Enforce rules

Each of the three condition types uses specific elements. For XML examples of the different rule types, see Merge AppLocker policies manually.

Membership in the local Administrators group, or equivalent, is the minimum required to complete this procedure.

To merge two or more AppLocker policies

1. Open an XML policy file in a text editor or XML editor, such as Notepad.
2. Select the rule collection where you want to copy rules from.
3. Select the rules that you want to add to another policy file, and then copy the text.
4. Open the policy where you want to add the copied rules.
5. Select and expand the rule collection where you want to add the rules.
6. At the bottom of the rule list for the collection, after the closing element, paste the rules that you copied from the first policy file. Verify that the opening and closing elements are intact, and then save the policy.
7. Upload the policy to a reference computer to ensure that it's functioning properly within the GPO.