Enable Windows 10 Developer Mode programmatically

Question

I know you can enable Windows 10 Developer mode interactively by going to Settings | For developers, selecting 'Developer mode' and then rebooting.

Is there a way to enable this programmatically? (eg. via PowerShell or similar so that I can include it as a step in a Boxstarter script when refreshing my developer workstation)

Answer 1

Turns out Nickolaj Andersen has written an article which includes just such a PowerShell script..

http://www.scconfigmgr.com/2016/09/11/enable-ubuntu-in-windows-10-during-osd-with-configmgr/

Here are the relevant lines extracted from his post:

# Create AppModelUnlock if it doesn't exist, required for enabling Developer Mode $RegistryKeyPath = "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AppModelUnlock" if (-not(Test-Path -Path $RegistryKeyPath)) {     New-Item -Path $RegistryKeyPath -ItemType Directory -Force }  # Add registry value to enable Developer Mode New-ItemProperty -Path $RegistryKeyPath -Name AllowDevelopmentWithoutDevLicense -PropertyType DWORD -Value 1 

Answer 2

I modified the accepted answer and ended up with the following script:

param([Switch]$WaitForKey)  if (([Version](Get-CimInstance Win32_OperatingSystem).version).Major -lt 10) {     Write-Host -ForegroundColor Red "The DeveloperMode is only supported on Windows 10"     exit 1 }  # Get the ID and security principal of the current user account $myWindowsID=[System.Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity]::GetCurrent() $myWindowsPrincipal=new-object System.Security.Principal.WindowsPrincipal($myWindowsID)  # Get the security principal for the Administrator role $adminRole=[System.Security.Principal.WindowsBuiltInRole]::Administrator  if ($myWindowsPrincipal.IsInRole($adminRole)) {     $RegistryKeyPath = "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AppModelUnlock"     if (! (Test-Path -Path $RegistryKeyPath))      {         New-Item -Path $RegistryKeyPath -ItemType Directory -Force     }      if (! (Get-ItemProperty -Path $RegistryKeyPath -Name AllowDevelopmentWithoutDevLicense))     {         # Add registry value to enable Developer Mode         New-ItemProperty -Path $RegistryKeyPath -Name AllowDevelopmentWithoutDevLicense -PropertyType DWORD -Value 1     }     $feature = Get-WindowsOptionalFeature -FeatureName Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux -Online     if ($feature -and ($feature.State -eq "Disabled"))     {         Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -FeatureName Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux -Online -All -LimitAccess -NoRestart     }      if ($WaitForKey)     {         Write-Host -NoNewLine "Press any key to continue..."         $null = $Host.UI.RawUI.ReadKey("NoEcho,IncludeKeyDown")     } } else {    # We are not running "as Administrator" - so relaunch as administrator    # Create a new process object that starts PowerShell    $newProcess = new-object System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo "PowerShell";     # Specify the current script path and name as a parameter    $newProcess.Arguments = "-NoProfile",$myInvocation.MyCommand.Definition,"-WaitForKey";     # Indicate that the process should be elevated    $newProcess.Verb = "runas";     # Start the new process    [System.Diagnostics.Process]::Start($newProcess);     # Exit from the current, unelevated, process    exit } 

It automatically elevates itself, if not already running elevated and enables the optional feature mentioned by Julian Knight.