Windows 10: Turning off the "Remove access to use all Windows Update features" group policy

Windows 10 introduced a new computer group policy, "Remove access to use all Windows Update features", which blocks access to the Windows Update control panel. You can turn this on in group policy and then make the client see the change by scanning for updates.


When you turn the group policy off, however, you have a bit of a chicken and egg problem, because scanning for updates from the control panel is still blocked. With the control panel blocked, you can't start a scan, and without a scan, the control panel will remain blocked.


In v1607, after turning the setting off in group policy you could make the client see the change by running "usoclient StartScan" at the command line.


In v1809 this no longer works.


Is there another solution? I tried "usoclient RefreshSettings" but this didn't work either. The change will kick in eventually (by default, automatic scans occur every 16-20 hours) but if I'm trying to, e.g., install updates during a scheduled outage then eventually isn't really good enough. Doing a scan through the API doesn't work either.


NB: I am talking about the computer group policy setting, not the user group policy setting of the same name, which very unfortunately is no longer supported in Windows 10.

:)

 

GROUP POLICIES IN WINDOWS 10

You can change Group Policies by opening Group Policy Editor first. You can open it by following these steps:

• Log in an administrator account. If you are already logged in as an administrator, proceed to step 2.
  
• Press Windows + R to open Run.
• Type gpedit.msc and press Enter.
  

After opening Group Policy Editor, you can now make the necessary changes that you want.

Should you have more concerns, feel free to post.

Regards.

 

GROUP POLICIES IN WINDOWS 10

Just what i needed thank you.

 

Couldn't connect to windows group policy service????

Hi,

Thank you for posting in Microsoft Community, we appreciate your interest in Windows 10.

I understand the inconvenience you are facing as with error: Couldn't connect to windows group policy service, we will help you with this issue.

Do let us know when exactly you received this error code?

This issue might have occurred due to corrupted user profile, User Profile Service or Group Policy Client service stopped working, or Antivirus software conflicts.

I suggest you to check with the following and check if it helps.

Group Policy Client service, this service is responsible for applying settings configured by administrators for the computers and users through the Group Policy component. If the service is disabled
the settings will be applied and applications and components will not be manageable through Group Policy.

Step 1: Stop the Group Policy Client service.

• Press Windows Key + R on the keyboard and type
  services.msc, Services window gets opened.
• Search for Group Policy Client service, right click on it and click on
  Stop.
• Restart the computer.

Step 2: Start
the service and set it to Automatic:

• Press Windows Key + R on the keyboard and type
  services.msc, Services window gets opened.
• Search for Group Policy Client service, right click on it and click on
  Properties.
• Start the service, set
  Startup type to Automatic.

Hope it helps. Reply to the post with an updated status of this issue for further assistance.