Autarchy of the Private Cave

One of the benefits, offered exclusively by the Windows Vista Ultimate (not even by the Windows Vista Business), is

running UNIX applications (via SUA, Subsystem for UNIX Applications) , which provides higher flexibility for Windows workstations.

Where is the world going?

And how soon will all the Windows users (not only Ultimate Users) benefit from the higher flexibility by running UNIX applications?

It’s actually possible to install gpedit.msc snap-in for MMC in Windows XP Home Edition. I found the list of necessary files on pagesperso-orange.fr (in French), which also had the archive of all necessary (again, French) files and the installation batch-file (download gpedit pour xp home.zip; copied from here, which was found using “gpedit pour xp home.zip” keywords).

It’s easy to figure out what to do even if you do not understand French, but do know what gpedit.msc is for. However, here are some short instructions in English for manual MMC snap-in installation (batch file from the archive does everything automatically, but you’ll have to edit and verify the batch file first):

• put these files:
  

  appmgmts.dll
  appmgr.dll
  fde.dll
  fdeploy.dll
  gpedit.msc
  gpedit.dll
  gptext.dll

  into %SystemRoot%\system32 folder (most often it’s just c:\windows\system32)

• put these files:
  

  system.adm
  inetres.adm
  conf.adm

  into %SystemRoot%\system32\GroupPolicy\Adm\ (create if this folder doesn’t exist)

• finally, run these commands one by one in the CMD window:
  

  regsvr32 gpedit.dll
  regsvr32 fde.dll
  regsvr32 gptext.dll
  regsvr32 appmgr.dll
  regsvr32 fdeploy.dll

That should make gpedit.msc callable as Start -> Run -> gpedit.msc.

Other language versions of the necessary files can be retrieved from corresponding-language installations of WinXP Professional; English version can also be downloaded from Microsoft ( e.g. here , or search for “Group Policy ADM Files” at microsoft.com). Also, you can extract necessary files from available Windows distributions: just don’t forget, that “filename.dl_” is a compressed version of “filename.dll”, and can be uncompressed by using XP-bundled extract command.

Some additional information (geeks corner):

1. a comprehensive list of the “Group Policy/User Configuration/Administrative Templates” settings in Windows XP Home Edition
2. there’s also an extremely comprehensive Excel sheet, which maps numerous *.adm-file options to their registry equivalents - Group Policy Settings Reference (PolicySettings.xls). This file is for Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows 2003

Disclaimer: I do not know if modifying (enhancing) your WinXP HE in such a way is a violation of any EULAs. It’s your own responsibility to check this out and comply with any such regulations. Also, be advised that modifying any settings using gpedit.msc on WinXP HE may render some parts of the OS inoperable (IMO).