Microsoft.Windows.Developer/Taskbar fails to hide Widgets button with 'Attempted to perform an unauthorized operation'

[dmgonch]

Brief description of your issue

Recently Microsoft.Windows.Developer/Taskbar DSC resource started failing to hide Windows 11 Widgets button.

Steps to reproduce

On the latest publicly released Windows 11:

• Right-Click on Windows Taskbar, select Taskbar settings and ensure that Widgets toggle is set to On.
• Install PowerShell 7 and open it command prompt as administrator
• To ensure the latest WinGet is installed run Repair-WinGetPackageManager -Latest -Force (potentially some dependencies need to be installed manually by following steps in https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/package-manager/winget/#install-winget-on-windows-sandbox)
• Run: Install-Module Microsoft.WinGet.Client -Scope AllUsers -Force and Install-Module Microsoft.WinGet.Configuration -AllowPrerelease -Scope AllUsers -Force
• Unpack attached repro.dsc.zip to the current folder to get repro.dsc.yaml
• Run: (Get-WinGetConfiguration -File .\repro.dsc.yaml | Invoke-WinGetConfiguration -AcceptConfigurationAgreements).UnitResults | Format-List

repro.dsc.zip

Expected behavior

No error and Widgets item is turned off

Actual behavior

State                    : Completed
PreviouslyInDesiredState : False
RebootRequired           : False
Type                     : Taskbar
ResultCode               : -1978285818
Message                  : The configuration unit failed while attempting to apply the desired state.
Description              : Attempted to perform an unauthorized operation.
Details                  : at Set, C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WinGet\Configuration\Modules\Microsoft.Windows.Developer\0.2.1\Microsoft.Windows.Developer.psm1: line 330

Environment

Windows Package Manager v1.8.1911
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Windows: Windows.Desktop v10.0.22631.4169
System Architecture: X64
Package: Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller v1.23.1911.0

Winget Directories
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Logs                               %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState\DiagOutputDir
User Settings                      %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState\settings.json
Portable Links Directory (User)    %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\WinGet\Links
Portable Links Directory (Machine) C:\Program Files\WinGet\Links
Portable Package Root (User)       %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\WinGet\Packages
Portable Package Root              C:\Program Files\WinGet\Packages
Portable Package Root (x86)        C:\Program Files (x86)\WinGet\Packages
Installer Downloads                %USERPROFILE%\Downloads

Links
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Privacy Statement   https://aka.ms/winget-privacy
License Agreement   https://aka.ms/winget-license
Third Party Notices https://aka.ms/winget-3rdPartyNotice
Homepage            https://aka.ms/winget
Windows Store Terms https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/storedocs/terms-of-sale

Admin Setting                             State
--------------------------------------------------
LocalManifestFiles                        Disabled
BypassCertificatePinningForMicrosoftStore Disabled
InstallerHashOverride                     Disabled
LocalArchiveMalwareScanOverride           Disabled
ProxyCommandLineOptions                   Disabled
DefaultProxy                              Disabled

[mikamins]

I'm also experiencing this issue with using dev box

[Ermesx]

The same issue using DSC v3 directly:

  - name: win_Taskbar
    type: Microsoft.Windows.Developer/Taskbar
    metadata:
      description: "Modify taskbar settings"
    properties:
      SearchBoxMode: ShowIconAndLabel
      TaskViewButton: Show
      WidgetsButton: Hide
      RestartExplorer: True

2025-09-01T14:22:00.234795Z ERROR PID 6700: Exception: Attempted to perform an unauthorized operation.
2025-09-01T14:22:00.306712Z ERROR Error: Command: Resource 'pwsh' [exit code 1] manifest description: Error

[Gijsreyn]

It's an interesting phenomenon. I had opened Process Monitor to see what happens, and the property that is the issue is the WidgetsButton:

However, when I do it through the Settings itself, it allows me to set the value. However, when simply doing it through regedit, it doesn't. Probably a bug in Windows itself. @denelon, is this something that can be picked up with the Windows team?