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The existing questions on local group policy versus registry (for example, this one) don't seem to cover the following aspect:

In a non-enterprise context (i.e. it's just me and my Windows 10 Pro), does it make any practical difference through which of the two to apply a change?

For me, an important practical difference would be if (for example) changes made via local group policy were harder to undo, be it by the next Windows update or by some malicious software (that may or may not run elevated).

Giacomo1968
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user
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3 Answers3

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Neither, they are related but different tools with different purposes.

Group Policy is primarily intended for enterprise environments and is a catalog of settings whose default state is "Not Set" and which has mechanisms for retrieving Set settings from a trusted authoritative catalog (the domain controllers) in an enterprise environment, and a mechanism for applying the Set settings to the system, primarily by adjusting Registry settings.

The Registry is a database of settings driving many aspects of the Windows environment. It used to control far more of the OS than it does now, but with each recent generation of Windows more and more of it becomes becomes vestigial and ignored by the OS. A setting still existing in the Registry in Windows 11 does not mean it will apply or be effective in the same way it might have in Windows XP or 7.

Which to use?

It doesn't really matter, though I prefer adjusting the Registry. Group policy has the benefit of some description and a friendlier UI with multi-selects or drop-downs. Things you definitely won't find in the Registry.

A setting set in the Registry will typically be overwritten by settings set in the Group Policies, but if you're not consistent in using one or the other, you may then be adjusting things in the registry and wondering why they keep reverting.

This highlights the reasons I prefer the Registry:

  • It is direct. It is THE place the system polls for settings information. Group Policy catalogs are a once-removed settings source that have their purpose, but they are a step away from where the settings are actually read from.
  • When I've made a change and the expected changes don't happen, I have fewer things to inspect and diagnose, and it's usually just more clear "Oh, Windows doesn't check or apply that setting any longer".
music2myear
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Not really. Registry is where GPO settings are stored. All of the "Administrative Templates", if you look inside of the actual .adm or .admx files, are just templates for Registry settings – sometimes in a dedicated location that has priority (e.g. a program may look for a setting first in HKLM\Software\Policies and only if not found then in the "normal" location), but they're changeable in the same way.

Active Directory GPOs of course have a mechanism where the policy data is automatically refreshed from domain controllers to pick up updates. Local GPOs don't need to check for updates, gpedit.msc just makes the corresponding Registry changes directly.

grawity
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For me, an important practical difference would be if (for example) changes made via local group policy were harder to undo, be it by the next Windows update or by some malicious software (that may or may not run elevated).

That's exactly why I use local group policy¹ to set the Windows Firewall rules on my private gaming PC.

Back in the old days, when I used the traditional "Windows Defender Firewall with Advanced Security" UI, both Windows and every other application on my PC would happily re-add their annoying exceptions on every update.

Now, they still add their exceptions, but they don't matter anymore. My group policy ensures that only those apps and ports that I want to be open are open. (You can check it in the classic "Windows Defender Firewall with Advanced Security" UI by going to Monitoring/View active firewall rules.)

I am aware that this won't protect me from locally installed malware: software running with admin permissions can just change the group policy. But it keeps benign software in check.

¹ Start/Edit Group Policy/Computer Configuration/Windows Settings/Security Settings/Windows Defender Firewall with Advanced Security

Heinzi
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