Registry values reset to default values after closing and re-opening the registry after Administrator Protection has been enabled

Question

After enabling Administrator Protection in the latest Windows Insider Dev Channel builds, certain registry values (specifically DWORD entries) appear to revert to their default state upon restart or after closing and reopening Registry Editor.

For example, to enable the desktop watermark, I manually set the PaintDesktopVersion value under: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop from 0 to 1. This should display the build watermark on the desktop. However, after restarting the system or simply closing and reopening Registry Editor, the value resets to 0, which is the default for Dev builds.

What I think is that the Administrator Protection is not allowing to perform advanced registry changes even after the authorization PIN has been given.

Feedback: https://aka.ms/AAxkmyz

Answer 1

Hello Aarav,

If I am not mistaken, once you enable Administrator Protection, would that not prevent any permanent changes to the registry. You can read up further on this concern here:

https://pureinfotech.com/enable-administrator-protection-windows-11/