powershell-local-group-policy-reg

Load group policy's registry hive to a temporary registry key path, then you can edit it by normal external command.

When you use Group Policy on Windows 7/10, not in a AD server, you can not use Powershell's Group Policy Module due to it only works on AD's group policy environment.

How can i edit the Group Policy's registry hive on local machine?

Here is the way:

Use the IGroupPolicyObject2 to load registry hive and Get its mapped registry key path

With PowerShell, you can import C# source to get a GroupPolicy.Reg class as defined in IGroupPolicyObject2.cs.

Add-Type -Path IGroupPolicyObject2.cs

Then you load registry hive of local group policy:

[GroupPolicy.Reg]::Load()

Then you can see where the registry hive is mapped into your real registry.

[GroupPolicy.Reg]::userRegPath
[GroupPolicy.Reg]::machineRegPath

Sample output:

Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Group Policy Objects\{722642C1-7DCB-475B-96EA-16BB4B899EA7}User
Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Group Policy Objects\{722642C1-7DCB-475B-96EA-16BB4B899EA7}Machine

Both are relative to HKEY_CURRENT_USER, you can see it in regedit tool.

Then you are free to use any command or external tool

regedit.exe or reg.exe, then goto the location printed above, then edit it.
Powershell's cd and New-Item or New-ItemProperty ... cmdlets

Powershell:

cd HKCU:\"$([GroupPolicy.Reg]::userRegPath)"
#Use New-Item or Set-Item or Set-ItemProperty ...  to manupilate registry

Call GroupPolicy.Reg.Save() to save to registry hive.

[GroupPolicy.Reg]::Save()

If you'v finished all work, then you should call Unload to unmap the registry hive.

[GroupPolicy.Reg]::Hive()

And do not forget to use gpupdate to apply group policy immdiately

gpupdate

Sample powershell script:

Add-Type -Path c:\files\IGroupPolicyObject2.cs

[GroupPolicy.Reg]::Load()

cd HKCU:\"$([GroupPolicy.Reg]::userRegPath)"

New-Item .\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System\_ -Force
Remove-Item .\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System\_

Set-ItemProperty -Path .\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System -Name Wallpaper -Value C:\files\WiFiConnected.png
Set-ItemProperty -Path .\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System -Name WallpaperStyle -Type DWORD -Value 2

Remove-ItemProperty -Path .\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System -Name **del.Wallpaper
Remove-ItemProperty -Path .\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System -Name **del.WallpaperStyle

[GroupPolicy.Reg]::Save()
[GroupPolicy.Reg]::Unload()

gpupdate

Good luck.

sjitech / powershell-local-group-policy-reg