How do I turn location services on, permantly

Dudley Roach 0 Reputation points
2025-12-15T14:02:49.3966667+00:00

I am unable to download updates to the HP Smart app because I am unable to let apps access my location. "Location is turned off and Windows and other users on this device will not be able to use location".

How do I turn Location on?

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Security and privacy
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  1. Dudley Roach 0 Reputation points
    2025-12-15T14:21:48.96+00:00

    I cannot toggle "Location Services" on or off. It is permanently off. "Some of these settings are managed by your organisation." Is highlighted. I have administrative rights but am unable to change these greyed out areas. The only time I can allow Location Services is to carry out a factory reset of my computer and the enable location services. However, when the computer updates it reverts.

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  2. DaveM121 815.3K Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2025-12-15T14:37:29.65+00:00

    1

    Open the Settings App.

    Go to Accounts.

    Select Access Work or School, is there is a work or school Email listed there?

    If there is a work or school account listed, that is causing the problem, because that is known to automatically add group policy changes to Windows.

    2

    If there is no work or school account listed there, try this fix.

    Click your Start Button, then just type cmd

    On the resulting list, right click Command Prompt and select 'run as Administrator'

    Paste each of these commands into Command one at a time and press Enter, wait for each command to complete, before running the next command, if you receive an error on any command, ignore that and continue to the next command.

    reg delete "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies" /f

    reg delete "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\WindowsSelfHost" /f

    reg delete "HKLM\Software\Policies" /f

    reg delete "HKLM\Software\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Policies" /f

    reg delete "HKLM\Software\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies" /f

    reg delete "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies" /f

    reg delete "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\WindowsSelfHost" /f

    reg delete "HKCU\Software\Policies" /f

    reg delete "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Policies" /f

    Then, close Command Prompt and restart (not shut down) your PC.

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