Enable Group Policy Windows 10 Home

The Group Policy Editor gpedit.msc is only available in Professional and Enterprise editions of the Windows 10 operating systems.

The editor is not included in Windows 10 Home; while it is possible to make many changes in the Registry directly, using the Group Policy Editor is often more convenient, especially when it comes to the discovery of new settings or making multiple changes.

Some tutorials on the Internet provide Group Policy Editor instructions only. Home users have to search for Registry keys linked to policies in those cases to make those changes to PCs running Windows 10 Home.

Windows 10 Home users could install third-party programs like Policy Plus in the past to integrate Group Policy support in Home editions of Windows.

Update: The method described below adds the Group Policy Editor GUI to the operating system but not the functionality.

Enable the Group Policy Editor on Windows 10 Home

A Reddit user published a batch script today on the Windows 10 board on the site that enables the Group Policy Editor directly on Windows 10 Home systems.

Note that it requires elevated privileges to run since it uses DISM.

Here is the script:

@echo off
pushd "%~dp0"

dir /b %SystemRoot%\servicing\Packages\Microsoft-Windows-GroupPolicy-ClientExtensions-Package~3*.mum >List.txt
dir /b %SystemRoot%\servicing\Packages\Microsoft-Windows-GroupPolicy-ClientTools-Package~3*.mum >>List.txt

for /f %%i in ('findstr /i . List.txt 2^>nul') do dism /online /norestart /add-package:"%SystemRoot%\servicing\Packages\%%i"
pause

I have created the file and zipped it. You can download it with a click on the following link: windows-10-home-group-policy.zip

Note: If you have troubles downloading the file, download it from this link instead.

All you have to do is the following to enable gpedit.msc on Windows 10 Home.

1. Make sure you create a backup of the system before you make the change. I have tested this on multiple Windows 10 Home PCs and virtual machines and it worked each time without issues. You want to be on the safe side of things, however, so back up before you run the batch file.
2. Extract the archive on your system using the built-in zip extractor or a free third-party program like Bandizip or 7-Zip.
3. Right-click on the batch file, gpedit-windows-10-home.bat is the name if you downloaded the archive version, and select "run as administrator" from the context menu.
4. Wait until the commands run their course.
5. Press any button on the keyboard when asked to do so to exit the command prompt window. The Group Policy Editor should be available now.
6. Open Start, type gpedit.msc and see if it pops up as a result.

Now You: do you use the Group Policy Editor?

Summary

Article Name

How to enable gpedit.msc (Group Policy) on Windows 10 Home devices

Description

Find out how to enable the Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc) on devices running Microsoft's Windows 10 Home operating system.

Author

Martin Brinkmann

Publisher

Ghacks Technology News

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Tweaking Windows settings that are not readily available in standard menus will commonly require modifications to be made from the OS' Registry Editor or Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc). The registry is a database with settings stored for the system, drivers, services, user interface and so on, while the Group Policy Editor provides more of a GUI for understanding and adjusting some of the settings in the registry (Group Policy changes are also kept in the registry).

Group Policy features were introduced in Windows 2000 and are still bundled with the operating system today as long as you aren't on a Home or Starter build, which have less features than Pro or Enterprise.

We regularly reference Group Policy settings throughout our tips, such as this guide to disabling Windows ads and more on Windows 10, and we thought those of you on Home would probably appreciate being able to use Gpedit like everyone else.

You can check what version of Windows you are on with the tool that opens by entering msinfo32.exe into Start or Run. You can also check if the Group Policy Editor is installed by trying to launch the utility with gpedit.msc.

After testing various suggestions from around the web, we found one that works for adding the Group Policy Editor to Windows 7, 8 and 10.

Install the Group Policy Editor on Windows Home Edition

Aside from working with many generations of Windows, the highlight of this first method is that no downloads are required. Instead, files that already exist within your operating system are used to install Group Policy Editor. While Windows Home doesn't have gpedit.msc installed, all of the data necessary for the utility are stored in the system files.

We'll use Windows DISM commands to install the Group Policy Editor (credit to Solomon at SQL Quantum Leap for this).

Copy the entire body of text and paste/enter it into an admin-level Command Prompt.

FOR %F IN ("%SystemRoot%\servicing\Packages\Microsoft-Windows-GroupPolicy-ClientTools-Package~*.mum") DO (

DISM /Online /NoRestart /Add-Package:"%F"

)

FOR %F IN ("%SystemRoot%\servicing\Packages\Microsoft-Windows-GroupPolicy-ClientExtensions-Package~*.mum") DO (

DISM /Online /NoRestart /Add-Package:"%F"

)

Using those commands installed the Group Policy Editor within a few minutes on our virtual machines running Home editions of Windows 7, 8 and 10. In each case, a reboot was needed for gpedit.msc to be listed via Start.

Policy Plus: An alternative to the Group Policy Editor

If that didn't work and you aren't opposed to third-party software, Policy Plus is free, portable, open source, can be installed on any edition of Windows and provides an interface for making Group Policy changes that is similar to Microsoft's Group Policy Editor, although the Policy Plus developer notes that applying certain tweaks will require you to use File > Save.

Group Policy settings that may be worth configuring

As mentioned before, we have dedicated article to disabling Windows 10's various annoyances and that's likely a good starting location if you're looking for some things to tweak in the Group Policy Editor. However, here are some examples of what can be modified, including a couple of the suggestions from that article.

Quick start guide: Search Start or Run for gpedit.msc to open the Group Policy Editor, then navigate to the desired setting, double-click on it and choose Enable or Disable and Apply/Ok.

A slew of Start menu/Taskbar tweaks
User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Start Menu and Taskbar

Prevent or delay Windows Update
Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Update > Defer Upgrades and Updates

Disable forced restarts
Computer Configuration > Administrator Templates > Windows Components > Windows Update > No auto-restart with logged on users for scheduled automatic update installations

Disable removable disks
User Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Removable Storage Access > Removable Disks: Deny read access

Other hardware lockouts: Computer Configuration > Policies > Administrative Templates > System > Device Installation > Device Installation Restrictions

Power-related policy settings
Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Power Management

Disable OneDrive
Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > OneDrive > Prevent the usage of OneDrive for file storage

Prevent software installations
Computer Configurations > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Installer > Disable Windows Installer

Turn Off Windows Defender
Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Defender > Turn off Windows Defender

Lock your desktop wallpaper
User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Control Panel > Personalization > Prevent Changing Desktop Background

Disable Windows 10 telemetry Open up the Group Policy Editor by launching gpedit.msc as an administrator. Go through Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Data Collection and Preview Builds > Allow Telemetry

White/blacklist applications from running
Computer Configuration > Policies > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Application Control Policies > AppLocker

Record Windows logon attempts
Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local Policies > Audit Policy > Audit logon events (Enable Success & Failure)

Show only certain control panel items
Local Computer Policy > User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Control Panel > Hide specified Control Panel items or Show only specified Control Panel Item

More Useful Tips

• "Run as Administrator": What Does It Mean?
• Ways to Free Up Storage Space on Windows
• Essential Apps You Should Install on a New PC Running Windows or macOS
• Get Rid of Windows 10 Ads, Office Offers and Other Annoyances

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