A few years ago, before I retired, I was working as an IT Engineer professionally. In those days I relied heavily on the Group Policy Editor to limit or enhance what users could or could not do on their computers. After retiring I bought a new computer but bought it with a Windows 11 Home Edition. I didn't feel the need to spend the extra $100 for the Pro Edition I was used to using. I didn't really realize how much Microsoft had "dumbed down" the Home Edition. Yesterday I had an interest in using the Group Policy Editor, and to my dismay found that MS had removed it from the Home Edition. Currently it's only available in the Pro, Enterprise and Educational editions. Now let me just say, that nearly all typical home users will never need this, and I would recommend they don't because if you don't know what you're doing you could mess things up. However, if you're an IT Professional like I was you may find a situation where you need to know this. There is a way and the following is how.

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So far, we've learned that the Group Policy editor was removed from Windows 11 Home Edition. So how do we add it back?

This is a fairly simple process but does require a bit of patience. The execution of this method took nearly 4 hours to complete.

The first step is Copy the following code. Don't worry if you don't understand it. But you'll need to copy it in its entirety.

@echo off & Cls

(Net session >nul 2>&1)||(PowerShell start """%~0""" -verb RunAs & Exit /B)

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"


For /F %%B In ('wmic Os Get /Format:List ^| Find /I "Osarchitecture"') Do (Set Output=%%B)


If "%Output:~15,21%"=="64-bit"  (
    If Exist "%SystemRoot%\System32\gpedit.msc" (
    
    Goto :Skip
    
    ) Else (
    
    Copy "%SystemRoot%\SysWOW64\Gpedit.msc" "%SystemRoot%\System32"
    
    )

:Skip

Open Notepad and paste the code into it.

Code to add GPEdit.msc to Win 11 Home

Click File > Save As and give it any name you want. I named mine enable_gpedit.bat
**Important note: you need to include the .bat file extension in the name*
Then change the "Save As" type from the default "Text Documents (.txt)" to "All Files".
I choose Desktop to where I want to save it to make it easier to find.

Example:
Save the gpedit.bat file

Now find the batch file you saved, right click it and choose "run as administrator" and allow the security prompt.

This will open a Command Prompt Window and start running the batch script. For reference the term Deployment and Imaging Servicing Management Tool is also known simply as DISM.

GPEdit Batch File deployment

Remember when I said earlier this requires some patience. I have a gaming computer with a ton of RAM and awesome processor, but this really slowed my computer down and took nearly four hours to complete.
DO NOT close the Command Prompt window while it's running.

When it is completely finished running it will close the Command Prompt automatically. That's what the ":Skip" command does at the end of the script. Once the script completes you will need to restart your computer. When you're logged back in, hit the Winkey+R on your keyboard and type gpedit.msc and hit enter.

Group Policy Editor

Congratulations! You now have the Groupe Policy Editor installed on your Windows 11 Home Edition PC!
(note: this also works on Windows 10 Home Edition)

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