What does this mean – "Settings are hidden or managed by your organization"?

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Apologies if I posted this question earlier. I’d thought I had, but I never received any notice of a reply, and I now can’t find the supposed original message. So here goes, possibly for the second time.

I’ve come across of a number items in Windows settings which are disabled and accompanied by the message “Some of these settings are hidden or managed by your organization.” See the attached screen shot from Settings | Privacy | Diagnostics & feedback. My memory isn’t great, but I think I’ve seen this in other places in the settings as well.

The version of Win 10 doesn’t seem to matter, but I have Version 1909 on my desktop and 1903 on my laptop. The message appears in both versions, and it appeared in earlier versions as well. I’m curious regarding what it signifies.

Part of my question may seem pedantic. The message in question is ambiguous, in that it could mean that the settings are either (a) hidden by my organization, or (b) managed by my organization. Or it could mean that they are either (a) just plan hidden, or (b) managed by my organization. Which is it?

But in either case, I’m the sole owner and user of my computers, so there shouldn’t be any organization in the picture, whether hiding and managing, or just managing my settings. Can anyone tell me what an “organization” has to with any of this? Should I be worried that the Illuminati are messing with me? (Again!)

And quite apart from whether there’s a organization lurking in the background, what’s the deal with settings being “hidden”? It seems strange for settings to be hidden from the owner/user of a computer. On the surface, this doesn’t seem to be the same sort of thing as hidden files, since “hidden” in the latter case simply means that they’re not visible unless they are “unhidden” via folder options. And if the settings can be changed, but only in the registry, calling them “hidden” seems to be a kind of misdirection.

So what does “hidden” mean in this context? That they can be changed, but I have to play in the registry? Something else, and if so what?

For now, I’m actually not interested in changing these particular settings, but it would be good to understand what’s going on for future purposes.

Thanks for any enlightenment.

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You asked this a couple of weeks ago and it was answered:

Settings “managed by your organization” when there is no organization

I found this by copying your “Settings are hidden or managed by your organization” from this thread title and pasting it in the Search box.

Hidden just means not available in Settings because you’ve made changes elsewhere.

1 user thanked author for this post.

BobStr

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Sorry. I had searched by entering my user name in Search, and it didn’t turn up the original thread.

Now that you’ve identified it, I’ve thanked the people who had replied there.

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b

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It means that the registry contains entries (usually under subkeys labelled ‘Policies’… but not always) which prevent you – the user – from using Windows’ Settings app to make any further changes.

By default Windows 10 has more than 2,3oo policy entries in the registry but more policies can be created manually, by use of REG files, by use of the Group Policy Editor (as you have a Pro edition of Windows 10) or by use of a third-party tweaking tool (like O&O ShutUP10 or Winaero Tweaker, for example). [Windows also has a Policy Manager but there’s no GUI for it (that I can find), only DLLs.]

Whilst the policy entries are scattered throughout the registry, there are 4 main areas which are the most likely storage points for the ones responsible for the ‘Settings are hidden or managed by your organization’ messages you are seeing:

These are for system-wide restrictions (i.e. affect all users):
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies –
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies

These are for restrictions which affect only the current logged-on user:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies

The easiest and fastest way I know to search for policy entries in the registry is to use Nir Sofer’s free/portable RegScanner. (Note that there are both 32-bit and 64-bit versions available so make sure you get the one which matches the version of Windows you are using.)

Although you can undo restrictions manually in the registry, be aware that Microsoft increasingly uses obfuscation to deter this so it can be difficult to find particular settings. As a result it’s easiest carried out using whatever was used to set the restrictions in the first place.

With regard to your screenshot, the Improve inking and typing toggle is greyed out (restricted) because you have Diagnostic Data switched (from the default Full) to Basic. However, you also have a policy in place which is restricting you from changing this back to Full.

The easiest way to fix this (as you have a Pro edition) is:

1. Close the Settings app.

2. Search for gpedit.msc.

3. When it’s found, *right*-click on it and choose Run as administrator.

4. When the Local Group Policy Editor opens, use the *left*-hand navigation pane to navigate to:

Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Data Collection and Preview Builds.

5. In the right-hand pane select the entry for Allow Telemetry. (If it is set to Enabled and the level set to 0 then it will have the effect of greying out the options for Diagnostic Data in the Settings app.) (Note: The level 0 setting only actually works on Enterprise/Education versions of Windows 10.)

6. Double-click on the entry to open it and change the setting to Not Configured then click on the Apply button.

7. Re-open the Settings app to check that the restriction has been removed.

8. Close the Local Group Policy Editor.

Hope this helps…

3 users thanked author for this post.

Great Lake Bunyip, BobStr, wavy

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The forum software appears to have removed the backslashes from the registry paths in my post above. I’ll try again…

These are for system-wide restrictions (i.e. affect all users):
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies –
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies

These are for restrictions which affect only the current logged-on user:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies

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FTFY

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Rick Corbett

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Okay, PK, you got me! ??FTFY??

Zig

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Fixed This For You?

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