A bug in the Windows 11 October update has caused an issue with Smart App Control, which is preventing some users from turning the feature on.
Smart App Control is an important security feature in Windows 11 that helps users avoid potentially harmful apps, but after installing the October update, for some users the option to enable the feature is greyed out (inactive).
If Smart App Control is already enabled, you shouldn’t be affected, but if you’ve disabled Smart App Control for some reason and want to enable it again, this bug will prevent you from doing so.
Microsoft is aware of the bug, but at the time of writing, has yet to issue a fix. If you don’t want to wait for an official Microsoft fix, you can bring back the option to turn on Smart App Control via a couple of Registry changes.
Here’s how:
How To Re-Enable Smart App Control
Open an elevated Command Prompt (admin) and copy and paste the following two commands, one at a time, pressing Enter after each:
reg add "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Policies\Microsoft\FeatureManagement\Overrides" /v 2883193997 /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
reg add "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Policies\Microsoft\FeatureManagement\Overrides" /v 2850574478 /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /fNow restart the system, and the option to enable Smart App Control should be available again.
NOTE: I tested these commands in Windows 11 26H2, and they worked fine.
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