Disable Group Policy Service on Windows Vista/7

As an administrator, I like to have FULL control of the computer that I use everyday.  Most companies deploy group policies that will set defaults to your computer, and not allow you to change those settings.  This will require that you are an administrator of the computer that you are using.

Open Regedit, and navigate to HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\gpsrv.  Right click on the gpsrv key, and select Permissions.  Go to Advanced, and the Owner Tab.  Change owner to your account, and click OK.  Next, select Administrators, and check the Full Control box.

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Click OK to close the permissions window, and look on the right hand section of Regedit.  Look for this start key.  Double click the Start DWORD, and change the value to 4 – this disables the service.

Reboot, and you will not get any group policies assigned to your computer.  Note, that every time you log in, you will get a message, warning you that Windows cannot connect to the Group Policy service.  Just click the X, and ignore. :)

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It is best to do this before you have joined your computer to the domain.  Do it with a local account that has administrative rights, reboot, then join the domain.  This will ensure that you do not get any policies applied to your machine. 

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4 Responses to Disable Group Policy Service on Windows Vista/7

  1. Sina says:

    When i try to change the owner, it says access is denied! how do i fix it?? i can get to that bit, but after that it says access is denied. And i cannot change the number 2, to 4! it also says that cannot edit or something!
    Please help

  2. Larry says:

    Just wanted to check if it’s possible to re-enable the Group Policy Service?
    What value should the Start key have?

    I’ve also reassigned the ownership back to “System”.

  3. angelo says:

    problem disabling this service is that you cannot log in as a standard user.

  4. Mark says:

    This worked perfectly for me. Big middle finger to IT.

    Just because IT have the power to deny the user certain access rights it doesn’t automatically mean they have to exercise that power. It’s about time these guys woke up and realised that they are providing a SERVICE, they are NOT our bosses.

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