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[jeffspl311]

"This program is blocked by group policy" is the message I get when trying to install on my Lenovo thinkpad. The title of this error dialog is "7-zip".

I've been getting carpal tunnel trying to search the net for ways to eliminate any and all group policies from my machine, and I think I've tried them all but the problem persists.

I've finally installed 7-zip and unzipped the MC installer and ran the setup that way, but get an error when the process gets to the direct-x section (around 60% through). Nevertheless it seems to finish and MC seems to open up. I haven't tested anything extensively to know if it's really working or not.

This machine has the latest Win 10 and is not currently part of a domain.

Anyway, do you why this error message is happening and how to fix it properly?

Thanks,
Jeff

[JimH]

Antivirus

[jeffspl311]

Yea, I saw that as a possible culprit in my googling too... Symantec came up a lot... but I only have MalwareBytes and the built in Windows Defender. I've turned both off, well, to the extent you can turn off Defender (turn off real time protection) and still 7-Zip tells me it's blocked.

[JimH]

Uninstall MalwareBytes, just to test.

Error messages are often erroneous.

[jeffspl311]

OK, no MalwareBytes anymore, and Defender has realtime protection off, and I still get it the error
Any other ideas?

[JimH]

Is Windows Defender configured correctly?  There is a thread here on it.

[jeffspl311]

Ah HA! Just as I was losing hope... I found this:

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/5831722b-3f5e-4834-985a-6f9c014c9bd4/programs-blocked-by-group-policy-but-why

Relevant excerpt here:

"As a last resort you could try this:
Logon as an Administrator
Navigate to HKLM\Software\Policies and nose around to see if anything
there might be the cause.
Next, Navigate to
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies and do the
same.
If nothing jumps out at you, back up both of these registry keys then delete them and then
run GPUPDATE /FORCE and see if problem is still there.
If so, try all the above steps again, but this time use HKCU instead
of HKLM."



Turns out brute force deleting the registry entries for the policies is what it took. Just cleaning things out in GPEDIT was not enough for my laptop.

Sorry for the bandwidth, but now you all know if it ever happens to you

[JimH]

Thanks for reporting the solution.