This post describes steps you can take to disable altogether or enable Bluetooth in Windows 11.
By default, your Windows device with Bluetooth adapter will allow users to enable or disable the ability to connect to a Bluetooth-enabled device. No particular actions are needed.
Administrators can also limit the ability of users to turn on or off Bluetooth connections using the registry editor in Windows. These settings in the Windows registry will allow or disallow Bluetooth connection.
The most restricted value is 0.
The following list shows the supported values:
- 0 – Disallow Bluetooth. If this is set to 0, the radio in the Bluetooth control panel will be grayed out and the user won’t be able to turn on Bluetooth.
- 1 – Reserved. If this is set to 1, the radio in the Bluetooth control panel will be functional and the user will be able to turn on Bluetooth.
- 2 (default) – Allow Bluetooth. If this is set to 2, the radio in the Bluetooth control panel will be functional and the user will be able to turn on Bluetooth.
Below are steps that show you how to restrict the ability of users to turn on or off Bluetooth adapters to connect to Bluetooth devices in Windows 11.
How to restrict users from turning on or off Bluetooth in Windows 11
As mentioned above, administrators can restrict users from turning on or off Bluetooth in Windows 11. When Bluetooth is disabled, the radio in the Bluetooth control panel will be grayed out and the user won’t be able to turn on Bluetooth.
Below is how to do that.
Open the Windows registry editor by clicking on the Start Menu and searching for Registry Editor, as highlighted below.
Under Best match, select Registry Editor app to launch Windows Registry Editor.
In the left pane of Registry Editor, expand the tree:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PolicyManager\default\Connectivity\AllowBluetooth
You may be able to copy and paste the line above in the navigation box in Windows Registry Editor.
In the AllowBluetooth config page on the right-hand side, look for the REG_DWORD name value.
Right-click the value and select Modify or double-click to open.
On the pop-up window, use the value below to allow or disallow Bluetooth connection.
The most restricted value is 0.
The following list shows the supported values:
- 0 – Disallow Bluetooth. If this is set to 0, the radio in the Bluetooth control panel will be grayed out and the user won’t be able to turn on Bluetooth.
- 1 – Reserved. If this is set to 1, the radio in the Bluetooth control panel will be functional and the user will be able to turn on Bluetooth.
- 2 (default) – Allow Bluetooth. If this is set to 2, the radio in the Bluetooth control panel will be functional and the user will be able to turn on Bluetooth.
Select OK when done.
Close Windows Registry Editor.
That should do it! With a value data 0, users will lose the ability to turn on or off the Bluetooth feature in Windows 11.
Conclusion
This post showed you how to configure Windows to restrict the ability for users to turn on or off Bluetooth in Windows 11.
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