Enable the Settings icon on Windows 11 Start Menu with GPO

Question

I want to enable the Settings button on the Start Menu (next to the Power button). This would normally be done in Personalization -> Start -> Folders, but I cannot find the respective GPO or registry key for this.

When I looked into the Group Policy the most similar ones would be the "Remove X from Start Menu" settings, but they don't seem to have any effect on Windows 11. Does this option even have a group policy object or do I need to change a registry key?

Answer 1

It seems that settings application visibility policy is located within the control panel GPO:

Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Control Panel > Settings Page Visibility

User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Control Panel > Settings Page Visibility

It is not a part of Start button and Taskbar policy. More information can be found here.

Answer 2

I was able to change the registry value from Greg Askew, which surely works fine on my normal account (not a roaming profile in an AD) after relogging.

# only show the settings icon
$path = "HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\CloudStore\Store\Cache\DefaultAccount"
$data = "02,00,00,00,e6,e3,14,8b,6c,38,d9,01,00,00,00,00,43,42,01,00,c2,14,01,cb,32,0a,01,05,86,91,cc,93,05,24,aa,a3,01,44,c3,84,01,66,9f,f7,9d,b1,87,cb,d1,ac,d4,01,00,c2,3c,01,c2,46,01,c5,5a,02,00"
$hex = $data.Split(',') | ForEach-Object { "0x$_"}

foreach ($v in Get-ChildItem -Path $path) {
    if ($v.Name.Contains(("windows.data.unifiedtile.startglobalproperties"))) {
        Set-ItemProperty -Path ($v.PsPath+"\Current") -Name Data -Value ([byte[]]$hex)
    }
}

Although for domain users either:

• HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\CloudStore\Store\Cache\DefaultAccount didn't exist.
• or it did exist and I manually confirmed the registry value was changed (under the proper GUID), but didn't seem to have changed anything after relogging.

Answer 3

I found these registry values, shown in PowerShell, worked for me:

New-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\PolicyManager\current\device\Start" -Name AllowPinnedFolderSettings -Value 00000001 -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
New-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\PolicyManager\current\device\Start" -Name AllowPinnedFolderSettings_ProviderSet -Value 00000001 -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue