what is windows shell experience and why do i get a window telling me to ask for permission to use it

Question

When I log in, a window opens on my desktop with "Microsoft family features" in the heading, telling me to ask for permission to use "Windows Shell Experience". My account is the adult account in my family and there should not be any Microsoft family restrictions on my account. Why am I getting this window?

Answer 1

So.. we have people recommending pointless integrity checks, and mistaken removal of security created policies...come on guys this is not rocket science... a CORE windows module has a policy out of line ...fixed in c48seconds from below...

1: Anyone getting this error is on a non home, aka PRO version of windows

2: CLICK START

3: TYPE local security policy

4: EXPAND APPLICATION CONTOL POLICIES

5: EXPAND APPLOCKER

6: You will have 4 tabs within, and I no doubt no rules setup in there

7: You need to add the defaults, which YUP you guessed it, ADDS windows shell experience in for you

8: Go ahead and right click on all four, and where you see add default option, click it to add them in, (right click on all four), and you will see windows shell added in, close and issue immediately fixed for ever :)

9: And if you don't see 'add defaults' then do the slightly longer route of going through the motions of ADDING a new EXECUTABLE rule... pick literally any file you want notepad.exe ect, as your not going to actually add it, just get to the point where you then get TOLD/ADVISED your missing the default rules and do you want to add them, you click yes of course, and at that point, close the MMC/policy window, done.

10: And to the people suggesting the SELF DESTRUCT option of from an elevated cmd window deleting xyz AppLocker files, JUST DONT DO IT

Nope - tried this now on three machines, all new builds, doesn't work. 

Tried the Local Security Policy trick - did not help. Updated to 1809 - did not help

What helped is this:

1. Enabled the Administrator Account
2. Logged in as Administrator
3. After the login - I noticed that it did something (the icons were refreshed)
4. That's it - it solved the issue.

Now I can login as a parent, and as a child and not getting any errors. What I an getting when I login as a child - a notification that this account is monitored by Family Features. This is probably what the bloody thing wanted to do - show the stupid notification and missed some permissions. I honestly do not understand why they need to show this notification, but anyway - now it is all fixed.