Install Group Policy Management Console in Windows 7 | 8

In this post we will see how to install Group Policy Management Console or GPMC in Windows 7 | 8.  GPMC simplifies the management of Group Policy in Windows systems, by making it easier to for IT and System Administrators to understand, deploy, manage, troubleshoot Group Policy implementations, as well as automate Group Policy operations via scripting.

The Local Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc) is not to be confused with the Group Policy Management Console (gpmc.msc). GPEDIT work with the registry settings of your local system, whereas GPMC is a server administration tool for domain based network.

To do this, you will need to download and install Windows Remote Server Administration Tool or RSAT. The Remote Server Administration Tools enables IT administrators to manage roles and features that are installed, from a remote computer. They include Server Manager, Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-ins, consoles, Windows PowerShell cmdlets and providers, and select command-line tools.

You can download it from here: Windows 7 | Windows 8 | Windows 8.1

Install Group Policy Management Console

Once you have installed it, restart your system and open Control Panel > Programs and Features. From the left side, click on Turn Windows features On or Off. The Windows Features box will open.

You will now see the under Remote Server Administration Tools entry and it will be checked by default. Just confirm that Group Policy Management Tools check box is checked. If it is not, then do so and click on OK. You may need to wait forwhile, so that Windows can make changes to the system.

Once done, open Run box, type gpmc.msc and hit Enter to open the Group Policy Management Console. Log in with a domain username to start using it.

Note that you will be able to use it only if your have systems running Pro / Business / Enterprise editions of Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008 editions. It will not run on editions which do not have Group Policy, like the Home editions.