How to change locked location setting in Windows 10

Question

How to change locked location setting in Windows 10

Paul Cooper 0

I went to location settings and it is locked. Even as Administrator I can not change this setting. Some of my apps need to have my exact location, otherwise they don't run correctly.

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2 answers

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Answer 1

If the Location setting is locked or greyed out in Windows 10, it is typically being controlled by another app or tool, not by the standard Windows UI itself.

From the provided information, one known cause is privacy/telemetry blocking tools such as SpyBot AntiBeacon. These tools can enforce policies that disable or lock Location Services, and those policies can revert any changes made via gpedit or regedit after a restart.

To regain control of the Location setting:

Open the privacy/telemetry blocking tool that was installed (for example, SpyBot AntiBeacon).
Look for settings related to sensors, location, or telemetry.
In SpyBot AntiBeacon specifically, uncheck or disable the sensors-related blocking options.
Reboot the device.
After reboot, go back to Start > Settings > Privacy > Location and verify that Location can now be turned on.

Once Location is unlocked and enabled, apps that require precise location should be able to function correctly again.

If using a work-managed device, note that an organization can also enforce location policies; in that case, the Location page will show “Some settings are managed by your organization,” and changes may require IT/admin intervention.

References:

Answer 2

1

Open the Settings App.

Go to Accounts.

Select Access Work or School, is there is a work or school Email listed there?

If there is any work or school account listed there, select it, and disconnect the account, then restart (not shut down) your PC.

2

If there is no work or school account listed there, use this fix.

Click your Start Button, then just type cmd

On the resulting list, right click Command Prompt and select 'run as Administrator'

Paste each of these commands into Command one at a time and press Enter, wait for each command to complete, before running the next command, if you receive an error on any command, ignore that and continue to the next command.

reg delete "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies" /f

reg delete "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\WindowsSelfHost" /f

reg delete "HKLM\Software\Policies" /f

reg delete "HKLM\Software\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Policies" /f

reg delete "HKLM\Software\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies" /f

reg delete "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies" /f

reg delete "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\WindowsSelfHost" /f

reg delete "HKCU\Software\Policies" /f

reg delete "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Policies" /f

Then, close Command Prompt and restart (not shut down) your PC