CU bug?: "Some settings are hidden or managed by your organization

AnonVendetta said:

Thanks to all for the info. I'll look around more then make a decision.
@WOT: Not being activated isnt a big deal, especially for less than 15 hours. As stated, I have access to legit MAKs, just not on hand, those are in a safe @ work. It's not like I pirated anything. And if I format the drive to go back to 1703, then it wont matter anyway, since I'll be restoring an already activated backup, I just have to clone it back to the drive.
@alphanumeric: So there were multiple GP policies you had to change? I usually avoid GP myself, I can trouble my nerd with this, but he's very busy and I prefer that he work on more important projects.

I just did a Google Search for "Some settings are managed by your organization" and looked at what was recommended. Non of it worked for me. I didn't have that message in the usual place though. I just made sure to keep track of what I changed, and change it back to not configured when done testing.

@AnonVendetta: A full disclosure of the problem and background information is always the best way to go.

AnonVendetta said:

@WOT: Sorry, but that's not my nature. I'm quite secretive and antisocial despite somehow managing a business of less than 10 people. I've always operated on the need-to-know principle. I tend to give out only the relevant info and only on an as-needed basis. Otherwise I should just go ahead and publish my business's private info on the Net so my competitors can potentially use it for their gain.

Unfortunately, that is the way many OPs present their issue. However, not providing full disclose can kill any help initiate. Here's an example of what I mean:

I need to stay productive, so I'll read into this a bit further to see if there is a simple fix, otherwise my hardware needs to be back in a working state soon, that means rolling back. Then I'll either mark the topic as solved, or not.

Recently, an OP wanted to know if he should increase his pagefile size to increase performance. So many members responded with their opinion. So, after a few pages of responses, he "adds" the reason that he likes to play a game but it is slow and he identifies the game. So now after a few more pages of responses he finally reveals the real reason why he wanted to increase the pagefile size... and guess what that was? Because his RAM was getting close to being maxed out when playing that game. Then he decides to throw a few negative responses because people made suggestions not knowing the full story.

@AnonVendetta

While Windows usually does a good job of installing properly sometimes it does not. The root of your issue probably lies within the Windows registry. While the GPO editor is fine for making changes it ultimately changes the registry. I think of it as frontend for editing the registry. So with that said check out this tutorial by Shawn @Brink. I think maybe the solution to your issue can be found there.

Enable or Disable Windows Update Automatic Updates in Windows 10 Windows Update & Activation

See specifically Option Two. You may need to Signout/Signin or maybe even reboot to register change. Windows can be tricky about these kind of changes and it may not change immediately. There may even be another registry setting that may over-ride changes discussed in the tutorial. I am currently not of aware of any specific setting that could do that. I'm just saying.

So, I did a clean install of 1703 CU on the SSD, with all partitions removed via diskpart's "clean" command beforehand. It was just a regular install from USB, no manually using WAIK/DISM/ImageX/wimlib (the latter is my normal route and it has worked fine for years). So the installer created the default 4 partitions (Recovery, EFI, Microsoft reserved, and C drive, in that order).

Afterwards it booted into the initial setup wizard, my exact settings are as follows:
1. Set region and keyboard layout, added no additional KB layouts
2. Didn't connect to the Net, created local admin account with no password
3. Denied Cortana permission to use info needed to do best work

Then I disabled:
1. Location
2. Diagnostics
3. Relevant ads
4. Speech recognition
5. Tailored experiences with diagnostic data

This was all within the wizard. I do find it a bit creepy that Cortana activated my speakers and microphone without even bothering to ask, it does say you can disable the speaking in the wizard, but I prefer that 10 ask for permission first. MS misses the basic concept of who owns the hardware (me) vs who owns the OS (them). Everything they do on end users' hardware should be done with explicit consent. My PC speaking to me isn't something I'm accustomed to.

Anyway, I opened Settings immediately after getting to the desktop, then checked WU.....everything looks fine. No "managed by your organization" message or a grayed out box to download recommended updates for other products. My earlier setup was essentially the same as this, but I did change some minor settings (folder views, drive letters, etc). So I can deduce that *something* I did before triggered this. The PC is fully operational and doesn't prevent me from working, so for now I'm going to keep an exhaustive log of everything I do to see if it happens again. Then I'll report back.

You should check the box "Use my sign in info" (Although it has nothing to do with this post)

Use sign in info to auto finish set up Windows Update in Windows 10 Windows 10 Windows Update Activation Tutorials

Some updates require you to restart your PC and sign in to Windows in order to finish installing the update, which means you might sign in to Windows and find you can’t use your PC until the update is finished. Windows 10 helps prevent this from happening by allowing Windows to use your sign in info to create a special token. This token is used to automatically sign in after a restart, finish setting up your PC, and then lock your PC to help keep your account and personal info safe.