How to Bring Back the Group Policy Editor in Windows 11

October 8, 2022 Abraham Smith

When troubleshooting a problem on your Windows computer, you often use Group Policy Editor to easily fix it. With its hierarchical structure, you can quickly customize settings applied to users or your computer.

However, if Group Policy Editor is missing from your search results, you may need to use Registry Editor as a troubleshooting tool, which is a more complex solution. Luckily, you can bring Group Policy Editor back, and we’ll walk you through the steps.

Why is the Group Policy Editor missing in Windows Home?

If you’re looking for the Group Policy Editor on the Windows Start page but can’t find it anywhere, that’s because policy management is a feature designed for the Professional, Enterprise, and Education editions of Windows. However, you can still access Group Policy in Windows Home.

1. Run a bat file

If you have checked your Windows 11 build and version and are not using Windows Home but the Group Policy Editor is still missing, you can try running a .bat file to restore it.

Launch Notepad, copy and paste this batch code:

@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

Once that’s done:

Go to File > Save As.
In the pop-up window, insert the Save as option to all documents.
add the .Bat file extension of the name.
close notepad.
Right click on the file and select it Execute as administrator.
Restart your computer and see if you can now access the Group Policy Editor.

Enable Group Policy Editor in Windows 11

2. Use the command prompt

If you’ve tried several ways to access Group Policy Editor but haven’t had success, consider changing your system settings to enable it.

First, start the command prompt with administrator rights. You can do this by opening Windows search, typing “cmd”, then right-clicking on the search result and selecting Execute as administrator.

Once opened, run the following commands:

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”)

+When you see the process is 100% complete, you can close the command prompt and restart your computer.

3. Run an SFC scan

There are chances that you cannot find Group Policy Editor due to corrupted system files on your Windows 11 computer. To fix the problem, you should run System File Checker. Here’s how you can do it:

Use Windows search to search for “cmd” and select it Execute as administrator like you used to do
Type sfc /scan.
Press Enter.

Access the Group Policy Editor at any time

Enabling Group Policy Editor might seem complicated, but following the solutions above should help you resolve the issue.

After restoring Group Policy Editor to your Windows computer, make sure you are the only one changing your system settings. One of the best ways to do this is to create a guest account for everyone else to use.

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