Restrictions settings

The Restrictions settings restrict specific features, device settings, and search options on a Windows device.

Use the Restrictions settings to configure the following restrictions policy settings:

  • Device Restrictions
  • Accounts and Synchronization
  • Search Restrictions
Table 1. Device restrictions
Policy setting Description Supported devices
Allow camera Allows the use of a camera on the device.
  • Windows Phone 8.1+
  • Windows Professional, Education, Enterprise
  • Windows Team
Allow voice recording Allows a voice recording on the device. Windows Phone 8.1+
Allow manual root certificate installation Allows a user to manually install root and intermediate CA certificates. Windows Phone 8.1+
Allow Cortana Allows the device to use the Cortana virtual assistant on the device.
  • Windows Phone 8.1+
  • Windows Professional, Education, Enterprise
  • Windows Holographic
Allow location Allows location access on the device.
  • Windows Phone 8.1+
  • Windows Professional, Education, Enterprise
  • Windows Team
  • Windows Holographic
Allow storing images from Bing Vision search Allows Bing Vision to store the contents of images that are captured during a Bing Vision search. Windows Phone 8.1
Allow USB connection phone storage access Allows a desktop to access phone storage through USB (MTP and IPoUSB). Windows Phone 8.1+
Allow Telemetry Allows the device to send telemetry information such as SQM or Watson.
  • Windows Phone 8.1+
  • Windows Professional, Education, Enterprise
  • Windows Team
  • Windows Holographic
Table 2. Accounts and synchronization settings
Policy setting Description Supported devices
Allow adding of non-Microsoft account manually Allows a user to manually add non-Microsoft user accounts on the device.
  • Windows Phone 8.1+
  • Windows Professional, Education, Enterprise
Allow Microsoft account connection Allows the user to use a Microsoft account for non-email related connection authentication and services.
Note: This setting does not apply if the device is already configured with a Microsoft account.
  • Windows Phone 8.1+
  • Windows Professional, Education, Enterprise
  • Windows Holographic
Allow sync my settings Allows an enterprise to disallow settings synchronized across multiple Windows Phone devices.
  • Windows Phone 8.1+
  • Windows Professional, Education, Enterprise
Table 3. Search restrictions settings
Policy setting Description Supported devices
Allow search to use location Allows the search feature to use location information from the device.
  • Windows Phone 8.1+
  • Windows Professional, Education, Enterprise
  • Windows Holographic
Allow search to use language detection automatically Allows the search feature to automatically detect language on the device.
  • Windows Phone
  • Windows Professional, Education, Enterprise
Allow search to index encrypted files Allows the search feature to index encrypted files on the device.
  • Windows Phone
  • Windows Professional, Education, Enterprise
Allow search to use DiaCritics Allows the search feature to use diacritics (special characters) on the device.
  • Windows Phone
  • Windows Professional, Education, Enterprise
Safe Search Permissions Allows safe search on the device.
  • Windows Phone 8.1+
  • Windows Professional, Education, Enterprise