Error when you open Local Group Policy Editor in Windows 11/10

In today’s post, we will attempt to address the error message Resource $(string id=”Win7Only)’ referenced in attribute displayName could not be found that you might encounter when you try to open gpedit.msc in Windows 11/10.

Error when you open Local Group Policy Editor

When you try to open Local Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc), you may receive the following error message:

Resource $(string id=”Win7Only)’ referenced in attribute displayName could not be found

According to Microsoft, this is a known issue. There are text updates in the previous Windows 11/10 version of SearchOCR.ADML. However, when the changes were made, the line below was cut out of the new ADML:

<string id=”Win7Only”>Microsoft Windows 7 or later</string>

1] To resolve this issue, you should update to the latest version of Windows 11/10 via Windows Update or upgrade using the Windows 10 ISO.

2] Alternatively, you can download the updated ADMX package for your version of Windows 10 – and then use the updated SearchOCR.ADMX and SearchOCR.ADML files from it.

3] You can manually tweak the SearchOCR.adml file to work around the issue.

Here’s how:

• Navigate to the file location below:

C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions\en-US

• Locate and make a backup copy of SearchOCR.adml file in case that you make a mistake editing the file.
• Open the file in a text editor – preferably Notepad++.
• Locate Line 26.
• Click to place your cursor on Line 26.
• Now press the CTRL + ALT + Enter key combo to add a blank line. Line 26 should now be blank.
• On the blank Line 26 copy and paste the text below:

<string id="Win7Only">Microsoft Windows 7 or later</string>

• Press CTRL + S key combo to save the file.

• Exit Notepad++.

The procedure above is for the United States English version. Similar instructions will be provided for other languages to mitigate this gpedit.msc error.

We hope that this post helps you resolve the issue.

Read next: How to repair a corrupt Group Policy in Windows 11/10.

How do I reset the local Group Policy in Windows 11?

Group Policy Editor doesn’t offer any direct method to reset the group policy. However, you can set a policy to Not Configured to force it to use the default policy. Another way is to get a copy of the group policy from another PC and import it on your PC.

What is the pol file in group policy?

POL is the file type that GP uses to store registry-based policy settings made by Administrative Template, Windows Firewall, Application Control Policies (AppLocker), Software Restriction Policy or Disk Quota policy.