Enabling Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc) in Windows 10 Home

The Local Group Policy Editor console (gpedit.msc) is used very often to tune Windows settings. However, the gpedit.msc console is missing in the Windows 10 home editions (unlike Windows 10 Pro and Enterprise). It is likely that, according to the Microsoft logic, the home user doesn’t need to edit the local settings through the gpedit.msc GUI. Accordingly, users of the Windows 10 home editions have to make changes through the registry editor, which is not so clear and more risky since it is possible to make a mistake and break the system.

If you execute the command to launch the Group Policy Editor on Windows 10 Home or Windows 10 Home Single Language: Win + R -> gpedit.msc, the error appears:

In this article we’ll show how to install the local GPO editor snap-in in Windows 10 Home. This method also works in Windows 7 and Windows 8.1.

Local Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc) is a separate MMC snap-in, which is essentially a graphical add-in for easy management of Windows settings in the registry. When you change the settings of a policy, the editor immediately makes changes to the associated registry parameter. Instead of looking for the necessary key and manually editing the registry parameter, it is much easier to find and edit the setting in the gpedit.msc editor. The GPO editor contains more than two thousand Windows settings, which are located in a coherent hierarchy, have a detailed description and offer predefined configuration options for selection.

All applied settings of local policies are stored in registry.pol files in the folders:

• %SystemRoot%\System32\GroupPolicy;
• %SystemRoot%\System32\GroupPolicyUsers.

You can convert these pol files into a convenient text format using the lgpo.exe tool. If you delete files from these folders, you will reset all local group policies settings to the default empty settings (this is useful when, after changing some Windows settings through the local policies, the computer starts blocking user login or doesn’t boot).

Some time ago I found a third-party installer of the gpedit.msc editor for Windows 7. It can also be used in Windows 10 (described in a separate section of this article), but in Windows 10 Home there is a hide opportunity to install the gpedit.msc console directly from the Windows image files.

How to Install GPEdit Package in Windows 10 Home Using DISM?

To install the local group policy editor in Windows 10 in Home edition, open a command prompt as administrator and run the following commands in sequence:
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"
)

For convenience, you can save this code in a text file gpedit-install.bat and run it as administrator. Wait a while until DISM installs the packages from the Windows 10 component storage.

In my case, the ClientTools and ClientExtensions packages were installed in Windows 10 Home:

Microsoft-Windows-GroupPolicy-ClientTools-Package~…~amd64~~….mum
Microsoft-Windows-GroupPolicy-ClientTools-Package~…~amd64~en-US~….mum
Microsoft-Windows-GroupPolicy-ClientExtensions-Package~…~amd64~~….mum
Microsoft-Windows-GroupPolicy-ClientExtensions-Package~…~amd64~en-US~….mum

Now try to launch the gpedit.msc console – the local group policy editor interface should open (no reboot required). The GPO editor is fully functional even in the home version of Windows 10 and contains all the necessary policy sections that are available in the Pro/Enterprise editions of Windows.

Gpedit.msc Version from Windows 7

To start the group policy editor in Windows 10 Home, you can use the unofficial patch from enthusiasts, which includes all the necessary libraries and files for the local GPO Editor console.

• You can download the installation archive here: gpedit_msc.zip;
• Unpack the archive and run setup.exe under the administrator privileges;
• If you have a 64-bit Windows 10 version, without closing the setup window (without clicking Finish) go to %WinDir%\Temp and copy the files gpedit.dll, fde.dll, gptext.dll, appmgr.dll, fdeploy.dll and gpedit.msc into %WinDir%\System32 folder;
• Then copy the folders GroupPolicy, GroupPolicyUsers, GPBAK and the file gpedit.msc from %WinDir%\SysWOW64 to %WinDir%\System32; 
• Restart your computer and try to start the GPO Editor console by running the command gpedit.msc.

If the error “MMC could not create the snap-in” appears, run the file x86.bat or x64.bat (depending on the bitness of the system) from %WinDir%\Temp\gpedit manually. Manual copying of archive files to the %SystemRoot%\System32\ folder may also help.

Policy Plus: Universal Local Policy Editor for All Windows Versions

Recently, I came across a useful free utility Policy Plus, which is a cool alternative to the built-in Windows Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc) for all versions of Windows: Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 7 (including in Windows Home editions). You can download the utility from the GitHub: https://github.com/Fleex255/PolicyPlus

Download and run Policy Plus with administrator rights (it is portable and doesn’t require installation).

As you can see, the Policy Plus console interface is very similar to the gpedit.msc: a tree with sections in the left window and policies in the right window.

The Policy Plus functionality significantly exceeds the capabilities of the standard policy editor gpedit.msc. The utility allows you to link the administrative template files (admx), and if necessary, you can download the latest admx versions from the Microsoft site (Help -> Acquire AMDX Files). This operation is a must-do for users of Home editions of Windows 10, since the most of the administrative template files are missing.

Policy Plus has a convenient built-in policy search. You can search by text, policy description, related registry keys.

You can edit the registry of an offline Windows image, load POL files of policies and export settings of group policies to a file in order to transfer them to other computers (Import / Export reg and pol files). In this case, you don’t even need to use LocalGPO or LGPO utilities to transfer policy settings between different computers.

It is quite convenient that with the help of the built-in Element Inspector you can see which registry keys are changed by one or another policy and the possible values of the registry parameter.

Please note that after changing local policies, the Windows 10 Home users need to restart the computer or perform logoff/logon in order to apply the system settings. In Pro and Enterprise editions, most changes take effect immediately, or after the gpupdate /force command has been executed. In addition, Multiple Local Group Policies (MLGPO) are not supported in the Home editions of Windows.