Settings showing "Some of these settings are hidden or managed by your organization"

BakaInu87

Hi all,

I've recently installed VRChat on my laptop, and I noticed the microphone wasn't working, so I went into Settings -> Privacy -> Microphone to allow it to access my microphone (I always disable mic & camera permissions for privacy reasons on all my Windows 10 machines). I noticed the message "*Some of these settings are hidden or managed by your organization", and I can't change a single setting on the page. This is weird, I never had that message before, and I can change the settings.

I searched around the internet, almost all of them involve Group Policy editor and Registry. As I was on Windows 10 Home (OEM from Acer), it wasn't enabled, so I enabled it via a batch tool. Modifying Group Policy editor settings didn't work, and I don't want to mess with the registry since it involves deleting some entries, I don't want to have to reinstall Windows.

Any of you guys know the solution for this? It is weird, since this is my 100% personal laptop, and I am the sole administrator on both my computers and home network. Plus, Windows 10 Home shouldn't even be able to be managed by a network admin, since it wasn't designed to work in an enterprise setting (correct me if I'm wrong though)

Just to add additional info, the last thing I did was update Windows 10 and ran a DISM -scannow command on CMD, since my Firefox constantly causes my display drivers to crash, and that was the solution I found on their forums.

Tayler_g

Hi there! I understand your frustration with the microphone settings and the "managed by your organization" message. It's definitely unusual on a personal laptop without domain or network management. Here are some things you can try:

1. Check the Local Group Policy Editor:

While Group Policy Editor isn't officially available in Windows 10 Home, some OEMs include limited settings. Open Local Group Policy Editor and navigate to "Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local Policies > Security Options." Check if any microphone-related policies are set to "Disabled" or "Enforced."

2. Investigate Third-party Software:

Certain antivirus programs or security tools can manage privacy settings for microphones. Check your installed software and their configuration options to see if any might be influencing your microphone access.

3. System File Checker and DISM:

You've already run DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth, but consider running sfc /scannow again in an elevated Command Prompt. Both tools can fix potential system file corruption related to privacy settings.

4. Reset Windows Privacy Settings:

Go to Settings > Privacy > General and click "Reset privacy settings." This will reset all privacy permissions for apps to their defaults, potentially resolving any conflicting configurations.

5. Uninstall Recent Updates:

If the issue started after a recent Windows update, consider uninstalling it to see if that resolves the problem. Go to Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update > View update history > Uninstall updates.

6. Acer Support:

Since it's an Acer laptop, contacting Acer support might be helpful. They might have specific insights or tools related to their OEM settings that could shed light on the situation.