How to Enable ‘gpedit’ In Windows 10 Home?

Windows 10 Home version is mainly used on home systems while the Pro edition is used on office computers and professional systems. So the Home version has some reduced facilities like no BitLocker, no Remote Desktop, no cloud updates.

The biggest missing component of windows 10 home would be the Local Group Policy Editor. Today I will show you how to enable the Group policy editor in Windows 10 home.

What is Local Group Policy Editor?

The Local Group Policy Editor is a Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in that helps provide a single UI for managing all the Computer and User Configuration settings of the Local Group Policy Objects. It is used to configure Windows settings for all computers on a network and enforce them so that users cannot change them back.

Therefore a network administrator can block some parts of Control panel, or set some website as the homepage for the network. If you have children use your computer, you can allow users to run only specific programs or restrict their access to some drives only.

How to Use ‘Group Policy Editor’ in Windows 10 Home?

Here I will show 3 methods to enable gpedit.msc in Windows 10 home edition.

# Fix 1 (Using DISM)

You can use the DISM tool to enable gpedit in Windows 10 Home.

This method uses a batch file script to enable Group Policy Editor on Windows 10 Home Systems. Remember to create a system backup before you run this script. The Steps are:

1. Open Notepad from the start menu.
2. Type the following script or copy and paste in the input text field:

@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

3. Click on File. Select Save As.

4. Name the file ‘gpedit-windows-10-home.bat’. Remember to name the extension as .bat for this method to work.

5. Right click on the Windows Batch file you created. Select Run as Administrator.

6. Wait till the commands run their course.

7. Press any Key when asked to do so to exit the CMD.

Group Policy should be available on your Windows 10 Home system.

Open Run by pressing Win + R and type gpedit.msc. Press Enter and see if it appears.

If this method fails to work for you, here is another method to enable Group Policy Editor in Windows 10 home.

#Fix 2 (Using GPEdit installer)

Since Windows 10 home by default does not contain the Group Policy Editor, you may have to download the files required to access the settings. Here are the methods to download group policy editor in Windows 10 Home.

1. Download msc installer from this following link:

Link 1: Download 1  or Link 2: Download 2

2. This is a setup file that will install and configure Group Policy Editor in Windows 10 Home.

3. Install the Microsoft .NET Framework that prompts up if you don’t have the required version.

If you have a 32-bit operating system, the setup should install and run smoothly without any problems.

But if you have 64-bit Operating System, you have to follow additional steps. Follow these steps before running the installer:

4. Open file explorer. Navigate to the following folder path:

C:\Windows\SysWOW64

5. Locate the following folders and files:

• GroupPolicy
• GroupPolicyUsers
• msc

6. Copy the above folders and files and paste them in the following path:

C:\Windows\System32

This will make sure that you can run the Group Policy Editor from Run command dialogue.

If you get the error “MMC could not create the snap-in”, you need to follow these steps to solve this error:

7. Locate C:\Windows\Temp\gpedit\ to make sure it exists.

8. Download the following file and extract it to the above-mentioned folder.

Download 1

9. Now right click and select Run as Administrator for the x86.bat file if you are running the 32-bit OS or run the x64.bat if you are running 64-bit OS.

Using these steps you should have a working gpedit.msc in Windows 10 Home. If the above method doesn’t work, you can use the next method to install gpedit.msc in Windows 10 Home.

#Fix 3 (Using third-party apps)

Alternatively, you can use a third party app called Policy Plus to use Group Policy editor on any version of Windows 10.

Policy Plus is an open-sourced app that has a UI very similar to the native Group Editor GUI available on the PRO version.

The steps to download and use Policy Plus app is:

1. Download Policy Plus from the link given below;

Policy Plus

2. This is a portable app, so just double click to open the app.

No installation is required.

3. Since Windows 10 does not ship with all the administrative templates, you need to download all the Administrative Templates from Microsoft.

4. Select Menu. Click on Help and select Acquire ADMX Files.

5. Download the policies in the default location.

6. After making changes to a policy, you may need to restart the PC for the changes to take effect.

Now you should have access to the Group Policy Editor using the app Policy Plus.

These were the 3 methods to enable gpedit in windows 10 home.

GPEDIT vs. REGEDIT

The best way to make certain changes to Windows is probably the Registry Editor. Group policy editor works by modifying certain registry keys. But making changes to the Windows using gpedit is easier because of the simpler interface presented by the GUI.  You must know the specific registry keys to make these tweaks.

Also, with some updates of Windows, the registry-based location of the Policies changes. Making changes to the Policies prevent the changes being lost in case of an update.

However, remember to make backups of your registry files before you make any changes so as to have a way to recover them in case something goes wrong.

Conclusion

You may alter the Windows Configurations using either the registry editor or the Group Policy Editor. So there you have it. If you are a Windows 10 Home User, now you know how to download group policy editor in Windows 10 using the three methods given above. Comment below to further discuss which method you used for making these changes.