Microsoft removes policies from Windows 10 Pro

[ZeroDay]

Microsoft removes policies from Windows 10 Pro
by Martin Brinkmann on July 28, 2016 in Windows - Last Update:July 29, 2016 177

Professional editions of Windows 10 ship with the Group Policy Editor that enables users and administrators to make changes to the default configuration of the operating system.

Up until now, policy availability was more or less identical for all professional versions of Windows 10. Turns out, this is no longer the case when the Windows 10 Anniversary Update is released.

Some policies contain a note stating that they only apply to certain editions of Windows 10, with Windows 10 Pro not being listed as one of them.

Note: This setting only applies to Enterprise, Education, and Server SKUs

Furthermore, the corresponding Registry keys are not working either anymore which means that Pro users have no option to make changes to features affected by the change.

Update official Microsoft source
Microsoft published a new article on Technet that confirms that policies related to "tips and tricks" and "store suggestions" cannot be disabled anymore on Windows 10 Pro.

The comments on this article make for interesting reading.

 

[hjlbx]

Just another example of Microsoft trampling on user rights...

 

[Shran]

Well, guess I'm going to install my copy of Windows 10 EDU now.

 

[Ink]

I am thankful I didn't upgrade to Pro, just have to stick with this PoC OS for now. Soon it'll be cut down to operate like Windows 10 Mobile.

 

[SecretKeeper]

... I'm done. *whistles away while downloading Linux and moving personal files to the Mac*

 

[Captain Awesome]

Now what can Microsoft do to their users?

 

[ZeroDay]

Well, I've only just recently installed Windows 10 pro, but it looks like enterprise for me now.

Edit To add: I've been using Linux based systems for a good while now and if I didn't like Win 10 so much I'd switch back.

 

[Deleted member 178]

LOL, i don't see now what will be the advantage of using the Pro version.

 

[Azure]

Don't mind me. Just a casual Windows 10 Home user passing through

LOL, i don't see now what will be the advantage of using the Pro version.

Here's why Windows 10 Home is fine for most people
They still have Bitlocker at least.

 

[ravi prakash saini]

August 15th is the independence day for my country,India, and I have decided to switch over to Linux on the same day and celebrate double independence

 

[vinylmeister]

This is what "Windows as a service" look like...

I will now switch back my machines to Win 7 Pro until 2020 and see, if i can switch to Linux completely. Really pi**ed at the moment.

 

[Butterfly]

How convenient that all of this is being announced now that the offer to upgrade is over, got them all upgraded great! now lets start gradually monetizing and milking cash out of them to the maximum!
I'm assuming that as time goes by we will hear more bad news like this. My laptop is already running Linux, and as soon as most AAA games start supporting Linux my gaming machine will run Linux too (which will sadly not happen in the very near future, but I have hope that enough people will eventually be sick of M$ and go to the free open-source alternative).

 

[Tani]

After such policies only those people will be getting interest in windows who just want a GUI + working environment on their computer for games, movies, & basic daily life tasks & doesn't care whether they own windows or windows owns them!

 

[Tani]

How convenient that all of this is being announced now that the offer to upgrade is over, got them all upgraded great! now lets start gradually monetizing and milking cash out of them to the maximum!
I'm assuming that as time goes by we will hear more bad news like this. My laptop is already running Linux, and as soon as most AAA games start supporting Linux my gaming machine will run Linux too (which will sadly not happen in the very near future, but I have hope that enough people will eventually be sick of M$ and go to the free open-source alternative).

yup, already got tired of it few weeks back, though I was the one of the most interested users to try windows 10 on its release & even before its official release of stable version! No more!

 

[DJ Panda]

Well I am on Pro... What does this do? I didn't really understand. Does this mean I have to use WD?

 

[Ink]

Well I am on Pro... What does this do? I didn't really understand. Does this mean I have to use WD?

The Anniversary Update affects what's available for Pro users, via Local Group Policy edit (gpedit).

For example, if you try to use a service / program disabled with gpedit, you'll get a notification "Please contact your system administrator".

 

[Andytay70]

Well, guess I'm going to install my copy of Windows 10 EDU now.

Thats fine until they mess with that too!

 

[Andytay70]

From what i can gather they are making it harder for us to turn of telemetry and ads in windows 10

 

[ZeroDay]

LOL, i don't see now what will be the advantage of using the Pro version.

Exactly. They've basically turned the pro version into the home version. In the comments on the post I linked there's a lot of angry small business owners and IT technicians.

 

[ZeroDay]

August 15th is the independence day for my country,India, and I have decided to switch over to Linux on the same day and celebrate double independence

Have you chosen a Linux distribution yet? I'm sure you'll enjoy whichever one you choose though.