Microsoft is making some controversial changes to its Group Policy editor in its forthcoming Windows 10 Anniversary Update, which will mean that Windows 10 Pro edition users will no longer have the ability to disable some of the operating system’s more intrusive “features”.

The Group Policy editor is an admin tool that allows Windows settings to be configured centrally in order to apply changes to PCs joined to a specific Windows domain. It’s not available in the Windows Home edition, but until now has always been available to Windows 10 Pro users.

Group Policy is home to thousands of different settings, and that makes it easy for Microsoft to change a few things on the quiet, but some recent modifications didn’t slip past the attention of ghacks’ writer Martin Brinkmann, who noticed a few alterations in the Anniversary Update. According to him, a number of settings previously available to Windows Pro users can now only be changed by those using the Enterprise or Education versions of Windows. Microsoft later published its own blog post confirming the changes

One setting that’s disappeared is the option to “Turn off the Microsoft consumer experiences”. Despite the innocuous sounding name, “consumer experiences” is a feature that allows Microsoft to automatically install whatever it deems to be “recommended” third-party apps and links on the Start Menu. Previously, Microsoft has installed apps such as Candy Crush Saga, Flipboard and Twitter on people’s PCs in this way.

Other settings that can now only be disabled by Enterprise and Education version users include Lock Screen, disabling Windows tips, and disabling all apps from the Windows Store. Thankfully, and somewhat surprisingly, Windows Pro users are still allowed to disable Cortana [Computer Configuration – Administrative Templates – Windows Components – Search – Allow Cortana].

Essentially this means that Windows users, with the exception of those using Enterprise and Education editions, can no longer disable settings that let Microsoft use Windows 10 to promote apps and services from itself and third parties. As such, they’ll be forced to endure Microsoft’s advertising bombardment while using Windows 10, with absolutely no way to disable it.

“The changes take away functionality that was previously a part of the Windows 10 Pro edition,” Brinkmann concluded at the end of his article. “It is without doubt an annoyance, considering that Pro users have no option anymore to disable third-party applications, links or Store apps in general on Windows 10 once the Anniversary Update is installed.”

It could be that Microsoft is doing this in order to make its Enterprise edition more attractive to smaller businesses, many of which are likely to be running Windows 10 Pro. After all, it’s hard to see what kind of value Microsoft’s “consumer experiences” will have in a business environment. Windows Pro is of course the best option for a lot of businesses that wish to avoid the prohibitive costs of buying an Enterprise edition license, but with all the unwarranted advertising they’ll now be subjected to, it may cause one or two companies to have a rethink.

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