How to Enable Windows 10 Developer Mode in Simple Steps

Windows 10’s developer mode can be turned on or off as required. Here are the steps to enable developer mode in Windows 10.

Unlike the older versions, Windows 10 doesn’t require a developer license to enable and use the developer mode. Rather, you can directly enable the developer mode from the settings app, group policy, or registry editor. The developer mode helps you sideload apps, test apps, use unsigned apps, change developer specific settings, change PowerShell execution policy, etc. In fact, the Windows 10 settings app has a dedicated section called “For developers” to manage the most common settings.

To use the dev mode, you first need to turn on the developer mode in Windows 10. As I said before it is rather easy. Follow one of the below methods to quickly enable the developer mode in Windows 10.

Jump to:

• How to Enable Developer Mode in Windows 10 Settings
• Enable Developer Mode using GPO (Group Policy)
• Registry Key to Turn on Developer Mode
• PowerShell Command to Enable Developer Mode
• How to Verify if the Windows 10 Developer Mode is Enabled

Use any of the below methods to turn on the dev mode in Windows 10.

How to Enable Developer Mode in Windows 10 Settings

The Windows 10 settings app makes it easy to quickly enable or disable the developer mode. All you have to do is toggle the developer mode switch. Here’s how.

1. In Windows 10, press “Windows Key + I” to open Settings.
2. After opening the Settings app, click “Update & Security“.
3. On the left panel, click the “For Developers” tab.
4. Switch on the “Developer Mode” option.
   
5. In the pop-up window, click “Yes“.
   
6. Close the Settings app.
7. Restart Windows to apply the dev mode setting.

That is it. After restarting the system, the developer mode is fully enabled in Windows 10.

Enable Developer Mode using GPO (Group Policy)

The Windows 10 group policy editor has two policies to turn on the developer mode. We just need to enable them. Here’s how.

1. Open the Run window box with “Win Key + R” keybinding.
2. Type “Edit Group Policy” and click “Ok“.
3. After opening the Group Policy Editor, go to the below folder.
   Computer Configuration → Administrative Templates → Windows Components → App Package Deployment
4. Here, double-click on the “Allow all trusted apps to install” policy.
5. Select “Enabled” and click “Apply” and “Ok” buttons.
   
6. Next, open the “Allows the development of Windows Store apps and installing them from an integrated development environment (IDE)” policy.
7. Select “Enabled” and click “Apply” and “Ok” buttons.
   
8. Close the Group Policy Editor.
9. Restart Windows 10 system to apply the policy settings.

After restarting, the GPO will take effect and the Windows developer mode will be enabled system-wide. Since we are using the developer mode GPO, you need to disable the policies enable to disable the dev mode feature.

Registry Key to Turn on Developer Mode

You can set the AllowAllTrustedApps and AllowDevelopmentWithoutDevLicense registry keys to enable the developer mode in Windows 10. Here’s how.

1. Press the Windows Key to open the Start menu.
2. Type “Registry Editor” in the search field and click the result.
3. After opening the Registry Editor, paste the below path in the address bar and press Enter.
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AppModelUnlock
   
4. Right-click on the “AppModelUnlock” folder and select “New → DWORD value“.
5. Set the name to “AllowAllTrustedApps“.
6. Double-click on the value and set value data to “1“.
7. Click “Ok“.
8. Next, right-click on the “AppModelUnlock” folder again and select “New → DWORD value“.
9. Name the new value as “AllowDevelopmentWithoutDevLicense“.
10. Double-click on the value and set its value data to “1“.
11. Click “Ok“.
12. Close the registry editor.
13. Restart the system.

After restarting the system, the registry values are applied to Windows 10 and the dev mode is enabled.

PowerShell Command to Enable Developer Mode

By executing a single line PowerShell command, you can turn on the dev mode from the command line. Here are the steps you should follow.

1. Open PowerShell with administrator rights.
2. In the PowerShell window, execute the below command.

   reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AppModelUnlock" /t REG_DWORD /f /v "AllowDevelopmentWithoutDevLicense" /d "1"

3. As you can tell from the command, all we are doing is adding the registry setting via the PowerShell command.
4. Close the PowerShell window.
5. Restart the Windows 10 machine.

How to Verify if the Windows 10 Developer Mode is Enabled

After enabling the developer mode, it is important that you verify if it is turned on properly or not. It is pretty easy to verify the developer mode.

1. Open the PowerShell window as admin.
2. Execute the below command in the PowerShell window.
   show-windowsdeveloperlicenseregistration
3. If the developer mode is enabled, you will see “This device is already in developer mode” text in the message window.
4. Click on the “Ok” button to close the message window.
5. Close the PowerShell window.

I hope that helps. If you are stuck or need some help, comment below and I will try to help as much as possible.