Instructions on how to open Local Group Policy Editor on Windows 10

In this article, we will show you how to quickly open Local Group Policy Editor on Windows 10.

Group Policy Editor is a tool to help you customize deeply into the operating system on your computer directly.

Group Policy Editor supports a lot of interesting things such as: turn off Windows Update, disable Cortana, disable firewall, etc. Almost everything available on Windows, Group Policy Editor can intervene. By default, this tool is hidden from Windows.

What is Group Policy Editor?

Group Policy Editor is a utility that allows you to configure Group Policy settings for a Windows PC or a group of PCs. Primarily aimed at network administrators, Group Policy defines how you or a group of people can use your machine, restricting or enabling features as needed.

Group Policy Editor is a Microsoft Management Console application named gpedit.msc and it’s usually in the folder C:WindowsSystem32.

It is important to note that Group Policy Editor is not available in Windows 10 Home. It is only available on Windows 10 Pro or Windows 10 Enterprise.

There are many ways to open the Group Policy Editor in Windows 10, and we’ll cover some of the main ways to do it below.

Open the Local Group Policy Editor from the Start menu

Probably the easiest way to open the Group Policy Editor is to use the Start menu search. First, click the button Start, import “gpedit" in the search box and press Enter when you see "Edit Group Policy" in the list of results.

Open the Local Group Policy Editor from the Run window

You can also quickly launch the Group Policy Editor with the Run command. Press Windows + R on the keyboard to open the "Run" window, enter gpedit.msc, then press Enter or click "OK".

Mở Local Group Policy Editor từ Command Prompt

If you want to work from the command line, open Windows Command Prompt and enter “gpedit” or “gpedit.msc" into a blank line, then press Enter. The Group Policy Editor will open.

Mở Local Group Policy Editor từ Control Panel

Open Control Panel, then click the search box in the upper-right corner of the window. Import “group policy, and then click the "Edit Group Policy" right below the "Administrative Tools" heading.

Open Local Group Policy Editor using Task Manager

This tool can also be accessed through the Task Manager (Quick opening is Ctrl + Shift + Esc). For Windows 8.1 and Windows 10, the Task Manager window will be minimized. Now click on More details in the lower left corner of the window.

In the File Menu, click Run new task (Windows 8.1 and Windows 10) or New Task (Run…) in Windows 7. Then the Create new task window will appear, enter gpedit.msc then press Enter.

Open Local Group Policy Editor using File Explorer

Another convenient way to get into the tool is through Windows Explorer (in Windows 7) or File Explorer (in Windows 8.1 and Windows 10). Type gpedit.msc in the address bar and then press Enter.

Open Local Group Policy Editor by running its executable

Open Local Group Policy Editor by running the executable

The executable file of the Local Group Policy Editor can be found in the System 32 subfolder of the Windows folder. Go to the path C:WindowsSystem32 and find the file gpedit.msc. Then just double click to run.

Create shortcut for Group Policy Editor and pin it to desktop

We can completely bring the Local Group Policy Editor to the main screen if we want. In the Create Shortcut Wizard, enter gpedit.msc and then select Next. Then, we just need to click on the shortcut of Local Group Policy Editor on the outside of the screen to access it.

Before doing this, you need to create a shortcut for the tool first as in the above method. Then right-click the shortcut, select Pin to start or Pin to taskbar. From now on we can quickly access the tool through the Taskbar or the Start menu.

Local Group Policy Editor is a powerful tool, designed for power users and IT administrators. Through it, we can control the access and use of Windows by many other users.