In the past few years, Microsoft has been trying hard to improve the security of Windows, especially Windows 10. Users have been receiving timely updates that keep adding more and more security related features. One of such features is called the Group Policy which is responsible for the user's security when the computer is connected to a network. While this utility is quite useful and effective, it might cause some issues due to either bugs or improper settings in Windows 10. And today we are here to talk about an error called The Program is Blocked by Group Policy. We will take you through things like what causes this error in Windows 10 as well as how you can get rid of this error from Windows 10 successfully.
What is Group Policy and This Program is Blocked Error?
All the recent versions of Microsoft Windows including Windows 7, Windows 8/8.1, and Windows 10 have a utility installed by default which is called Group Policy. It is mainly used by network administrators for enhanced security for all of the users on that network. It allows the network administrator to tweak things like network policies, user access, and other important network related settings. While this utility can be quite useful in many cases, users might experience issues due to it as you will see later on in this article.
Causes of "This Program is Blocked by Group Policy" Error in Windows 10
All those people who have experienced this error in a Windows 10 PC may know that the user sees a message saying "This program is blocked by group policy. For more information, contact your system administrator." And due to this error, the user is simply denied access to that program by the Group Policy utility which can be quite frustrating. One might think that the network administrator has denied the access, but in many cases, a user might face this issue due to other programs causing errors in the Group Policy because of which you cant access that specific program. In such cases there are multiple solutions which you can try out from the list given down below:
1: Disable the Software Restriction Policy using Command Prompt
Since this error is related to software restriction due to the Group Policy in Windows 10, the first thing that you should try is to try disabling the Software Restrictions. While by default only the network administrator can change this via group policy, users can also run commands in Windows 10 to disable such restrictions. These commands are to be run via command prompt which then allows the user to successfully gain access to the application as shown in these steps:
- Open Command Prompt in Windows 10 as an administrator using Windows Search.
- Now inside command prompt, type REG ADD HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Safer\CodeIdentifiers\ /v DefaultLevel /t REG_DWORD /d 0x00040000 /f and press enter.
- Once you've run this command in Command Prompt, restart your Windows 10 computer to successfully save the changes.
- Now you should be able to access all of the programs that were restricted due to the Group Policy error.
2: Use Registry Editor to Delete Configured Group Policies
Apart from disabling the software restrictions of the Group Policy, you can also straight up delete all of the configuration data of group policy. It will have the same effect and you'll be able to access all of the applications in Windows 10 once again. But unlike the previous method, this process requires you to use the Windows Registry Editor in order to successfully delete all of the configuration data of Group Policy. And once you've used the registry editor to delete the configuration, you will be able to open all applications as shown down below:
- First open Windows Run by pressing Windows Key and X at the same time to select Run from the list.
- In here, type regedit and press enter which will launch the Windows Registry Editor in your Windows 10 PC.
- After that, use the Registry Editor to navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Software > Microsoft > Windows > CurrentVersion using the left side menu.
- Now, right-click on Policies in here and select Delete to delete the Group Policy configurations. Simply restart your Windows 10 PC after this to gain access to all of the applications in your computer.
3: Create a new User Account in Microsoft Windows 10
Since this error is caused due to Group Policy which manages different users on a network, it means that if you were a new user you might be able to access any denied applications. This can be possibly done by creating a new user account in Windows 10. While this method might not work for everyone, but many users have successfully used to gain access to blocked applications, thus fixing the Group Policy error. So, if you want to try out this method, then you can create a new user account in your Windows 10 PC by following these given steps:
- Open the Windows Start Menu, and open the System Settings by clicking the gear icon.
- In here, open the Accounts settings and go to the Family & other users section.
- After that, select Add someone else to this PC and choose I don't have this person's sign-in information. Now, select Add a user without a Microsoft account to begin the creation of a new user account in Windows 10.
- At last, once you've followed all the on-screen instructions and filled all of the required information, you'll be able to use the newly created account to access restricted applications in Windows 10.
We hope that you've successfully fixed the "This Program is Blocked by Group Policy" error in your Windows 10 PC. We are pretty sure that at least one of the fixed mentioned above has worked for you and you're not facing the Group Policy error on your computer. In case you liked this article, then make sure to share it on social media. If you have any doubts regarding any of the solutions, feel free to ask any queries in the comments section below.