How to set ExecutionPolicy: access to registry key denied

Question

I'm running Windows Server 2008 as admin and I tried to set ExecutionPolicy as Remotesigned for PowerShell v2 like this:

Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned

But I got this error:

Set-ExecutionPolicy : Access to the registry key 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PowerShell\1\ShellIds\Microsoft
.PowerShell' is denied.
At line:1 char:20
+ Set-ExecutionPolicy <<<<  RemoteSigned
    + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (:) [Set-ExecutionPolicy], UnauthorizedAccessException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : System.UnauthorizedAccessException,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.SetExecutionPolicyComma
   nd

How to fix this?

score 24 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 24 '10 at 16:18

24

Right click on Powershell shortcut and choose 'Run as Administrator'

answered Mar 24 '10 at 16:18

user25572

382
2
2

5

Also note that if you have a 64-bit OS you need to set the execution policy for both the 32-bit and 64-bit version of PowerShell. – Joey Mar 24 '10 at 16:27
1

You don't need to run it as admin, just run it with `-Scope CurrentUser` as Janus answer suggests – CharlesB Jan 20 '17 at 15:02

score 16 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:41

16

Stephen Jennings in reply to the same question on StackOverflow:

Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -Scope CurrentUser

This will set the execution policy for the current user (stored in HKEY_CURRENT_USER) rather than the local machine (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE).

edited May 23 '17 at 12:41

Community

1

answered Nov 27 '13 at 07:19

Janus

261
2
4

3

Thanks. This is the correct answer, not everyone has administrator privileges, but this still works. – Charles Clayton Sep 24 '14 at 17:28

score 4 · Answer 3 · edited Mar 14 '11 at 09:10

In case "Run as Administrator" doesn't work for you(didn't for me at first) or if you want a permanent solution, I found a fix by adding the permissions directly to the windows registry. After doing this when I called get-ExecutionPolicy it no longer came back restricted.

It's the equivalent of set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned, with it actually working.

Wrote about it here: http://kyleclegg.com/powershell/

Hope this helps.

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 27 '11 at 09:01

0

I found that the only solution to this error that worked for me was to run regedt32 & drill down to the key then change the permissions for users from read to full control. Local permissions on the server take precedent to the domain admin rights.

answered Jul 27 '11 at 09:01

mark shelton

1

Not really a good answer, given the other two answers already present... – HopelessN00b Nov 21 '12 at 05:43

How to set ExecutionPolicy: access to registry key denied

4 Answers4