All UWP apps do not allow me to change their startup settings.
- In Startup Apps, the option is greyed out.
- In the app's settings, it's supposedly enabled by policy.
This occurs with apps like Windows Terminal and Cortana as well. They are forced to start up on boot and I have dug through regedit, gpedit, google posted issues in both the Windows Terminal github, and the Fluent Terminal github, and contacted Microsoft support, and I have found no answers.
Is this some registry option? This answer does not work and this is the Microsoft docs page which describes EnabledByPolicy and other startup states, but does not go into depth on what keys / group policy settings could be affecting that.
Edit:
“Is this some registry option?” - Yes; Is this machine connected to an Active Directory domain?
You might need to understand XML or basic coding for some parts, ask your admins for others[...]
This is my personal machine. I am the administrator. I am not in a business, I am in my home.
@sarahkitty Have you already checked Task Manager and its Startup tab to confirm that the app is not listed there as DIsabled?
All problematic UWP apps are in task manager, set to Disabled. Trying to change it to "Enabled" is not persistent and does not change anything, and no matter what the app always starts on boot.
@sarahkitty Also, what version of Windows 10 are you running is you run winver?
21H1 (OS Build 19043.1110)
Another troubleshooting step would be to create a new local computer account, sign on with it and then see if the apps behavior changes or works any differently with that account with a new user profile.
The same behavior occurs if I create a fresh user account.
Edit #2:
There seems to be Policy issues all over. I have gpedit.msc but nothing in there is configured. Again, this is my own personal machine, of which I am admin of.
Here's an example of another setting blocked by some sort of policy:
And yet in both Computer and User configuration, there is no group policy setting denying this.
Edit #3:
Despite the group policy editor showing nothing, I actually just went to the relevant regkey HKLM:SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\DataCollection\AllowTelemetry and sure enough, it was disabled. I just enabled it, and the setting has come back on. So surely, intuitively, there must be some registry key missing / incorrectly set, related to UWP apps / startup applications.
Edit #4
I went to HKCU:SOFTWARE\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AppModel\SystemAppData\53621FSApps.FluentTerminal_87x1pks76srcp\FluentTerminalStartupTask. I've tried this before as well, and Windows Terminal has a similar registry key too. Changing the value to one of:
does nothing.
Final Edit:
I have given up, I did a fresh windows reinstall, and the problem no longer exists.
