Group Policy Management is a feature reserved for the Professional, Enterprise, and Educational activity editions of Windows. Just with a few tweaks, Dwelling users can enable the Local Group Policy Editor, or y'all can use a 3rd-party tool to access a more comprehensive collection of settings. Nosotros prove yous both options.

Update: Recent versions of Windows 10 have decoupled settings available in the Local Group Policy Editor in Windows 10 Home. You might still see the all settings mentioned beneath, but changing them might not take an effect on your organization.

How to Open the Local Group Policy Editor

You can access the Local Group Policy Editor in several ways.

Here are the two most convenient ones:

  1. Press Win + R to open the Run menu, enter gpedit.msc, and hitting Enter to launch the Local Grouping Policy Editor.
  2. Press Win to open the search bar or, if you're using Windows 10, press Win + Q to summon Cortana, enter gpedit.msc, and open the respective issue.

If this doesn't work, yous either don't accept Administrator privileges, or you're running Windows Home and don't accept access to the Local Grouping Policy Editor.

Fortunately, you don't have to upgrade to the Pro edition of Windows to tweak group policies. We explain how to enable the Local Grouping Policy Editor on Windows Home below, only we recommend checking out the post-obit tertiary-party tool first.

How to Configure Windows Settings Without the Group Policy Editor

Before yous attempt to enable the Local Group Policy Editor, consider using a more convenient and more powerful alternative. Policy Plus is an open-source tool that gives you access to settings in the Grouping Policy Editor and the Windows Registry.

Policy Plus is uniform with all Windows editions. It requires .Cyberspace Framework version iv.5 or up. We recommend installing the more than stable Release build. Once installed, go to Assist > Acquire ADMX Files, double-cheque the destination folder, and click Begin to download additional administrative templates.

If you've always dabbled with the native Windows Grouping Policy Editor, the interface of Policy Plus will expect familiar. The categories in the left-hand column, however, follow a slightly different logic that nosotros find easier to navigate.

Policy Plus Add Remove Programs

If you're using the Windows Home edition, switch to see settings in the Estimator category only, since your system will ignore changes to per-user Group Policy Objects; you'll demand to brand those changes in the Windows Registry instead.

Changing the settings works but like it does in the Grouping Policy Editor; more than on that below. Note that if you're using Windows Home, you'll have to restart or log off and back on to actuate changes.

How to Enable the Local Grouping Policy Editor in Windows Abode

Whether you lot're on Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows viii.1, or Windows 10 Home, you can enable the Group Policy Editor using i of the two solutions beneath.

Solution 1: Use the Add together GPEDIT.msc Installer

The proper installation with this tool requires a couple of tweaks and .NET Framework version 3.5 or college.

Offset, head to C:\Windows\SysWOW64 and re-create these items:

  • GroupPolicy folder
  • GroupPolicyUsers binder
  • gpedit.msc file

Then open C:\Windows\System32 and paste the items you just copied.

Now download the Add GPEDIT.msc Goose egg file from DeviantArt user Drudger and install it on your figurer. You volition demand a DevianArt business relationship.

Where to find the Add GPEDIT.msc download button on DeviantArt.

Post-obit the installation, yous will find the tool under C:\Windows\Temp\gpedit. You might have to manually navigate to that binder.

If your Windows username contains more than one discussion, y'all might have to adjust your installation. Correct-click x64.bat or x86.bat, depending on whether your system is 64-flake or 32-bit, and select Open with... > Notepad or Edit (Windows 10). Add quotes to the half dozen instances of %username%, i.e., change %username% to "%username%", save your changes, then right-click the BAT file again, and select Run as administrator.

If you keep to become the "MMC could not create snap-in" error, endeavour replacing "%username%" with "%userdomain%\%username%".

Solution 2: Use the GPEDIT Enabler BAT

If y'all can't find a gpedit.msc file on your system, or if the previous method didn't work, endeavour this.

Open Notepad, enter the code beneath, and salvage the file every bit Enabler.bat.

          @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 >>Listing.txt

for /f %%i in ('findstr /i . List.txt 2^>nul') do dism /online /norestart /add together-package:"%SystemRoot%\servicing\Packages\%%i" pause Then right-click the BAT file y'all only created and select Run as administrator. A command window will open, and the BAT file will run through several installations. Wait until y'all see Press whatsoever key to keep at the bottom; doing and then volition close the command window.

Command window showing the installation of gpedit.msc using the Enabler BAT file.

Now try to open gpedit.msc as described higher up. If you can't discover gpedit.msc using the search, be sure to try opening it using the Run window.

Courtesy to ITECHTICS for pointing us to this method.

How to Alter Group Policy Editor Settings

Now that you can access the Local Grouping Policy Editor, what are y'all going to practise with it?

The number of settings available in the Grouping Policy Editor has been shrinking, and things you used to be able to do now require a registry tweak. But you can withal detect a few gems, and we'll testify you how.

Inside the Grouping Policy Editor, you can discover settings affecting the Computer Configuration or the User Configuration and iii sub-categories for each of them. Browse the Administrative Templates to discover the most interesting settings.

The Local Group Policy Editor window.

Change Windows Update Settings

Let's accept a look at Computer Configuration > Authoritative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Update, everyone'southward nigh favorite Windows feature. You lot'll find that most of the settings here are Not configured.

Windows Update settings in the Local Group Policy Editor's Computer Configuration section.

To modify one of the settings, for instance, to Configure Automatic Updates, double-click the particular, and so review the available settings in the properties window that pops up, and change them to your preferences. In this example, you could modify the setting to Enabled, then cull choice 3 - Windows Auto download and notify for install, followed past your preferred installation twenty-four hours and fourth dimension. When you're done, click Employ.

Configuring the Automatic Update setting in the Local Group Policy Editor.

The Group Policy Editor likewise offers settings to suspension or stop Windows Update and ways to command Driver Updates in Windows 10.

Suit Windows Installer Defaults

Are you sharing your reckoner with others and wand to foreclose them from installing software? Caput to Calculator Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Installer > Disable Windows Installer** and enable this choice for non-managed apps merely or always.

Disable Windows Installer in Local Group Policy Editor

Other Windows Installer-related settings you can actuate include:

  • Always install with elevated privileges
  • Prohibit rollback or patching
  • Logging
  • Prohibit User Installs
  • Prohibit removal of updates

Be sure to read the description for each to sympathize what each setting does. Go along in mind that settings applied within Computer Configuration use to all users. If yous want to limit but specific users, switch to the User Configuration rails instead.

Level Up With Windows Group Policy

The Group Policy Editor is a treasure trove of powerful Windows settings. While its importance has declined since the introduction of Windows ten and will further lose importance when Windows xi launches, it still offers many means to customize your Windows setup. And now Domicile users have admission to these settings, too.

10 Ways Windows Grouping Policy Can Make Your PC Better

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