Developer Mode is greyed out on an OEM Windows 11 Pro machine and the installer is blocked

On a personal Windows 11 Pro PC, Developer Mode being greyed out and installers being blocked usually indicates either:

• The current account is not an administrator, or
• The device is managed by policy (for example, OEM/MDM/group policy) that restricts Developer Mode and app installation.

To address the Developer Mode issue:

1. Confirm administrator rights
   • Sign in with a local account that is a member of the Administrators group.
   • Enabling Developer Mode requires local administrator privileges; if the account is not an admin, the toggle will appear disabled.
2. Check if the device is managed by an organization
   • If the PC was preconfigured by an OEM or joined to a work/school tenant, policies may disable Developer Mode or other Advanced settings.
   • In such cases, the organization’s IT/MDM admin must change the policy. For example, they can enable the CSP policy ApplicationManagement/AllowDeveloperUnlock for the device or a developer device group so Developer Mode can be turned on.
3. Use policy/registry to enable Developer Mode (if allowed) If access to Settings is restricted but there is admin access to local policy/registry, Developer Mode can be enabled via: Group Policy (not available on Home editions):
   1. Run gpedit.msc.
   2. Go to Local Computer Policy → Computer Configuration → Administrative Templates → Windows Components → App Package Deployment.
   3. Enable:
      • Allow all trusted apps to install (sideloading), and
      • Allows development of UWP apps and installation from an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) (Developer Mode).
   4. Reboot the machine.
   Registry (all editions, requires admin):
   1. Run regedit.
   2. To enable sideloading, set this DWORD to 1:
      • HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AppModelUnlock\AllowAllTrustedApps
   3. To enable Developer Mode, set this DWORD to 1:
      • HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AppModelUnlock\AllowDevelopmentWithoutDevLicense
   PowerShell (run as administrator):

      reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AppModelUnlock" /t REG_DWORD /f /v "AllowAllTrustedApps" /d "1"
      reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AppModelUnlock" /t REG_DWORD /f /v "AllowDevelopmentWithoutDevLicense" /d "1"
   

4. Use the Advanced settings page correctly
   • On Windows 11, Developer Mode is under System > Advanced in Settings, in the For developers section.
   • Once the above policies/registry keys are set and the account has admin rights, the Developer Mode toggle should be available and not greyed out.
5. If Developer Mode package fails to install If Developer Mode is enabled but the underlying package fails to install (which can also block some developer features):
   1. Ensure the PC is connected to the internet.
   2. Check for Windows Updates under Settings → Updates and Security → Windows Updates and install all pending updates, then restart.
   3. Verify that the Windows Developer Mode package is present under Settings → System → Optional features → Add a feature (or the Apps → Apps & features path on older Windows 10 builds). If it is missing, Windows cannot find the correct package.
   4. After updates, disable and then re-enable Developer Mode to force a retry of the package installation.

If the OEM or an MDM solution has locked down the device, only the device owner/IT admin can relax those policies; local changes will not override them.

References:

• Settings for developers
• Developer Mode features and debugging
• Advanced Windows Settings
• Install the tools