This setting is enabled by the administrator - Google Chrome error, how to get rid of it? This option is enabled by the administrator This option is enabled by the administrator chrome
Greetings!
While working in your browser, you notice that the search engine has been changed, without your knowledge. And instead of the well-known Google or Yandex, now when you try to enter a particular search query, a completely different search engine opens, in which the search results are often unsatisfactory.
A natural desire in this situation is the return of the long-familiar and popular search engine Google or Yandex. You go to your browser settings to change the search engine, but you can’t do it. When you try to switch the search engine, a message is displayed stating that “This setting is enforced by your administrator” (the English version of this message is “This setting is enforced by your administrator”).
We will solve this problem in this material.
Why did the message “This setting is enabled by your administrator” appear in the browser?
An unauthorized change to the search engine occurred due to the activity of an application that was running on your computer and contained malicious or unwanted elements.
As a result, parameters were specified in the system settings, which caused the blocking of changing the search engine in the browser.
How to remove “This setting is enabled by your administrator” and change the search engine
We will remove previously specified parameters that led to the prohibition of changing the search engine in the Internet browser. The browser itself must be closed at the time of manipulation.
If after these manipulations the problem remains, it means that in addition to the settings in group policies, additional parameters were registered in the registry. In the next step we will delete them too.
It is worth noting that if you do not have anti-virus software or the malware databases it uses have not been updated for a long time, then the problem with unauthorized changing of the search engine in the browser may recur. Always use anti-virus software and keep it up to date.
If you are not yet planning to install antivirus software, then you can still check the system by using a free one that works without actually installing it on the system
- a pop-up message that shows the Chrome browser infected with an adware or potentially unnecessary program. When infecting a computer, this malware changes the home page, the page that opens when creating a new tab, and the search engine that uses Chrome by default.
Moreover, immediately after such a substitution, any changes to these personal settings are blocked. The possibility of such blocking is provided by the Google company itself, freely distributing a software package designed for using the Google Chrome browser in a business environment (in the office). Thanks to it, system administrators can block or fix almost all browser settings. Of course, malware developers were the first to take advantage of this “nice” opportunity. These programs are created for only one thing, by any means to force the user to watch an advertisement or visit a specific site. How to do this? Set the desired site as the user’s home page and then block the ability to change it.
Check your computer for the following symptoms of infection
Stages of treating your computer
1. Uninstall the program that caused the malware that infected your computer
Windows 95, 98, XP, Vista, 7
Click Start or press the Windows button on your keyboard. From the menu that opens, select Control Panel.
Windows 8
Click on the Windows button.
In the upper right corner, find and click on the Search icon.
In the input field type Control Panel.
Press Enter.
Windows 10
Click on the search button
In the input field type Control Panel.
Press Enter.
The Control Panel will open, select the item Uninstalling a program.
You will be shown a list of all programs installed on your computer. Review it carefully and uninstall the program that you suspect as the cause of the infection. This is probably the last program you installed. Also, take a close look at other programs and remove any that seem suspicious to you or that you are sure that you did not install them yourself. To remove, select a program from the list and click the button Delete/Change.
2. Remove rules created by the virus that block changes to the search engine and home page
Press the Windows and X keys on your keyboard at the same time. In the menu that opens, select Command Prompt (Administrator). A black window will open.
Run the following commands.
rd /S /Q "%WinDir%\System32\GroupPolicyUsers"
Press Enter.
Enter
rd /S /Q "%WinDir%\System32\GroupPolicy"
Press Enter.
Enter.
Press Enter and close the Command Prompt window.
3. Scan your computer and remove malicious extensions from Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer using AdwCleaner
AdwCleaner is a small program that does not require installation on your computer and is designed specifically to find and remove adware and potentially unnecessary programs. This utility does not conflict with the antivirus, so you can safely use it. There is no need to uninstall your antivirus program.
Download the AdwCleaner program by clicking on the following link.
Download AdwCleaner
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Version: 8.0.3
After the program has finished downloading, run it. The main AdwCleaner window will open.
Click on the button Scan. The program will begin checking your computer. When the scan is completed, you will see a list of detected malware components.
Click on the button Cleaning. AdwCleaner will begin cleaning your computer and will remove all malware components found. At the end of treatment, restart your computer.
4. Scan your computer and remove adware and malware using Malwarebytes Anti-malware
Malwarebytes Anti-malware is a well-known program designed to combat a variety of malware. It does not conflict with the antivirus, so you can safely use it. There is no need to uninstall your antivirus program.
Download Malwarebytes Anti-malware using the following link.
Download Malwarebytes Anti-Malware
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Version: 3.8.3
When the program downloads, run it. The Program Installation Wizard window will open in front of you. Follow his instructions.
When the installation is complete, you will see the main program window.
The program update procedure will start automatically. When it is completed, click on the button Run scan. Malwarebytes Anti-malware will begin scanning your computer.
When the scan of your computer is complete, Malwarebytes Anti-malware will show you a list of malware and adware parts found.
In order to avoid infecting your computer in the future, please follow three small tips
- When installing new programs on your computer, always read the rules for their use, as well as all the messages that the program will show you. Try not to install with default settings!
- Keep anti-virus and anti-spyware programs updated to the latest versions. Please also note that you have Windows automatic updates enabled and all available updates are already installed. If you are not sure, then you need to visit the Windows Update website, where they will tell you how and what needs to be updated in Windows.
- If you use Java, Adobe Acrobat Reader, Adobe Flash Player, be sure to update them on time.
Promoting a website is not an easy task, especially in a segment that already has its own “giants” who do not plan to give users and clients to competitors. This also applies to search engines, each of which tries to fight for its own visitors, but when there are such large players on the Internet as Google, Yandex, Bing and others, it is difficult to fight with them using fair methods. In such a situation, the creators of new search engines, trying to get traffic, begin to come up with methods for promoting their resource, including imposing themselves on users.
The search engine yamdex net actively uses methods of “black” promotion. It is installed by default in the Chrome browser, after which it prevents the user from changing itself. When trying to change the default search engine in Google Chrome, the user sees a message that this setting is enabled by the administrator. This limitation can be removed, and we will explain how to do this below.
Why does the message "This setting is enabled by your administrator" appear?
The message that the option to block search engine changes in the Google Chrome browser is enabled by the administrator causes confusion among computer owners. Google intends to display this message if the user has limited rights, for example, an employee on a work computer.
If your computer administrator sees a message like this, it means that changes have been made to the basic browser settings. However, uninstalling and reinstalling Google Chrome will not help solve the problem, since most of the settings when uninstalling the program remain written to the registry, and this is where changes are made when a similar error occurs. It is much easier to get rid of the problem “manually” by changing to the basic required values.
To get rid of this annoying error in your browser, you need to do the following:
- Run and enter the following command in it:
When the command is entered, press Enter, and general user group policy rules will be removed from the computer. 
- Next, write the following on the command line:
By pressing Enter, the Group Policy rules for the specific user who is currently working with the computer will be erased from the computer.
- The third step is to write the command:
Press Enter, and after that the information about group policies on the computer will be updated.
Next, you should try launching the Chrome browser and see if the “This setting is enabled by your administrator” error remains. If the error disappears, you can set your preferred search engine as default. If the problem cannot be solved, you must move on to the next step in the instructions.
- Press the Windows + R key combination on your keyboard to bring up the "Run" line and write in it regedit. This command allows you to open the registry editor, where you need to make changes to the settings that control the operation of the browser.
- In the left menu, navigate to the tab:
As you can see, removing the message in Chrome that this option is enabled by the administrator is quite simple. To prevent this error from occurring again, we recommend installing games and programs from trusted sources. Be sure to always check the installation parameters during the installation process.
Problem: The default search engine is set to yamdex.net. Moreover, it cannot be deleted, because... Instead of a cross, a lock icon with a picture of a building is displayed. When you hover over it, a tooltip appears: “This setting is enabled by your administrator.”
How to remove Yamdex.net from Chrome browser
Looking ahead, I will say that the most important point in this instruction is point 4. However, I advise you to follow all the others, since, from time to time, Yamdex can be registered in different places.
1. Correction of browser shortcuts. Removing postscripts
Open the browser shortcut properties:
Remove unnecessary things:
C:\Users\YourName\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\Google Chrome.lnk
Those that need to be deleted are marked in red. Line Object should look like this:
On the tab Generalthe checkbox must be unchecked Read only:
Save browser shortcut button OK.
2. Removing restrictive browser policies from the registry
Launch the registry editor (win+r, regedit, ok):
Open section HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Google\Chrome\
Adjust the values of two parameters:
DefaultSearchProviderEnabled=0
DefaultSearchProviderSearchUrl- empty string.
3. Change the search engine
Restart your browser.
Enter its settings.
Set your favorite search engine as default:
Remove yamdex from the list of search engines (the cross should be available):
4. Removing restrictions in user and computer policies
If the previous point did not help, then this one usually helps.
Run Command Prompt as Administrator ().
Run three commands (paste each line into the console and press Enter):
RD /S /Q "%WinDir%\System32\GroupPolicyUsers" RD /S /Q "%WinDir%\System32\GroupPolicy" gpupdate /force
A few seconds after the last command is executed, the following messages should appear:
User policy update completed successfully Computer policy update completed successfully
This is what it should look like in the window:
After that, check the search engine setting in your browser - it should be unlocked. If there is still yamdex.net there, remove it from the list and install your favorite search engine (see picture in step 3).
If you have a 64-bit system, also run these commands:
RD /S /Q "%WinDir%\SysWOW64\GroupPolicy" gpupdate /force
5. Cleaning the registry from the remains of an unwanted search engine
Now, in order to finally get rid of the yamdex.net search engine, you need to clear its traces in the registry. Search the registry for 'yamdex'. Remove all parameters containing this word:
After finding and deleting each item, press F3 until you see a message indicating that the registry search is complete.
6. System check with AdwCleaner utility
Check with AdwCleaner. Remove all found items and restart your computer ()
Video about removing Yamdex from the browser
Lately, every malicious infection that is trying to settle on a computer is trying to gain a foothold at least somewhere by any means necessary. One of the most striking examples is changing the search engine used by the browser (Google Chrome, Opera or Firefox) to its own and then blocking changes. Vivid examples are Yamdex, 2inf.ru, funda24.ru. The malware first embeds its search engine into the settings, and then, so that the user cannot return everything back, prohibits changes using group policies. After that, when you try to change the search engine in the browser settings, a message appears: “This setting is enforced by your Administrator.”
To correct the situation, you must perform the following operations.
2 . Enter and execute these commands in turn:
RD /S /Q "%WinDir%\System32\GroupPolicyUsers" RD /S /Q "%WinDir%\System32\GroupPolicy" gpupdate /force
On the command line it looks like this:
3 . Launch your browser, open the settings and change the search to Google or Yandex:
4 . Remove “left” and unnecessary search engines from the list:
5 . To prevent the situation from happening again, be sure to check your Windows 10 operating system for viruses and adware using a good antivirus (DrWeb CureIt, AVZ) and an ad-aware scanner (ADWCleaner, HitmanPro).