Windows Starter Edition, Home and Home Premium do not include gpedit, how do I install it?

How do I install gpedit.msc on Windows Starter Edition, Home and Home Premium?

I used the following procedure to successfully install gpedit.msc on Windows 7 64 bit Home Premium.

Notes:

• Confirmed as working on Windows 10 by Moab

• It apparently works on Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 as well. I have not personally tested this.

UPDATE: According to our readers, this tool also works fine in Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10.

Today we are going to share a simple installer which installs the required system files in Windows so that you can enjoy Group Policy Editor in all Windows 7 editions.

1. First download the setup file using following link:

   Download Group Policy Editor Installer

   You'll find the download link in right-side section of the above mentioned page:

2. After downloading the ZIP file, extract it using WinRAR or 7-Zip.

3. Run the extracted setup.exe file.

   It will install the files and you'll be able to access gpedit.msc command via RUN or Start Menu search box.

Note:

• For Windows 7 64-bit (x64) users! You'll also need to go to "SysWOW64" folder present in "C:\Windows" folder and copy "GroupPolicy", "GroupPolicyUsers" folders and gpedit.msc file from there and paste them in "C:\Windows\System32" folder.

If you are getting "MMC could not create the snap-in" error message while running gpedit.msc, check out following steps to fix the problem. Basically it happens when your username in Windows contains more than one word.

1. Run the installer and leave it at the last step (do not click on the "Finish" button).

2. Now go to C:\Windows\Temp\gpedit\ folder.

3. If you are running 32-bit (x86) edition of Windows 7, right-click on x86.bat file and choose "Open With -> Notepad" option. If you are running 64-bit (x64) edition of Windows 7, right-click on x64.bat file and choose "Open With -> Notepad" option.

4. You'll find a total of 6 lines containing the following string in the file:

   %username%:f

5. Edit those lines and replace %username%:f with "%username%":f

   Original: icacls %WinDir%\SysWOW64\gpedit.dll /grant:r %username%:f

   New: icacls %WinDir%\SysWOW64\gpedit.dll /grant:r "%username%":f

6. Save and run the file (right-click -> Run as Administrator).

7. That's it. You'll have working gpedit.msc.

Source How to Enable "Group Policy Editor" (gpedit.msc) in Windows 7 Home Premium, Home Basic and Starter Editions?

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Group Policy Settings Reference Guide

Microsoft has updated and made available as a download, the complete Group Policy Settings Reference Guide for Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003 SP2, Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2012 R2.

The download is available in the form of spreadsheets for different operating systems. So you can download the spreadsheet only for those operating system/s which you may be interested in.

Spreadsheet Download Link

...

What is also very useful in these spreadsheets, is that it also lists the registry keys which are affected when the settings are changed. Of course, you can always use the Group Policy Settings Search, to know the registry key and value name that backs a particular policy setting, but these spreadsheets put them all in one place.

The Administrative Template spreadsheet contains three columns that provide more information about each policy setting’s behavior related to reboots, logoffs, and schema extensions. These columns are the following:

1. Logoff Required: A “Yes” in this column means that the Windows operating system requires the user to log off and log on again before it applies the described policy setting.
2. Reboot Required: A “Yes” in this column means that the Windows operating systems requires a restart before it applies the described policy setting.
3. Active Directory Schema or Domain Requirements: A “Yes” in this column means that you must extend the Active Directory schema before you can deploy this policy setting.
4. Status: A “New” in this column means that the setting did not exist prior to Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8. It does not mean that the setting applies only to Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8. Refer to the column entitled “supported on” to determine to which operating system the policy setting applies.

Source Group Policy Settings Reference Guide for Windows 10/8.1/7/Server

Windows (at least Windows 10 home) comes with Group Policy Editor packages, but it is disabled by default. You can install it just like any other optional feature using dism.

The Group Policy package files can be found in

%SystemRoot%\servicing\Packages

With filenames matching

Microsoft-Windows-GroupPolicy-ClientExtensions-Package*.mum
Microsoft-Windows-GroupPolicy-ClientTools-Package*.mum

And command for installing would follow the following format:

dism /online /norestart /add-package:"%SystemRoot%\servicing\Packages\{{PackageFileName}}"

/online used to tell it to apply to the running OS

/norestart tells it to not auto reboot

After installing these gpedit.msc will be available. No need to download an external executable that you have to trust or find out if it is safe or not.

Since Alternative to gpedit.msc for Windows Home editions? is marked as a duplicate of this question (although it technically isn't), I'll post an alternative to gpedit here.

Every group policy corresponds to a registry value, which you can edit with regedit. The correspondences, including the different values, are documented on gpsearch.azurewebsites.net. It is apparently maintained by a Microsoft employee, so it's pretty reliable.