Disable Spellcheck Notepad W11

[SJ98]

Hello,

 

Is there a way to mass disable the spellcheck feature in notepad for W11? There's a set of accounts we want to keep it off for so that they can use it for exam conditions.

 

We have tried a GPO for Enablespellchecking Dword 0 and EnableAutocorrection Dword 0 in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Notepad, but this hasn't turned it off.

I know it may be slightly different from how it used to be set up and notepad is built in as an 'app' now - so if anyone has this working, let me know!

 

Thanks in advance

[bknaggs]

This page - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/client-management/manage-notepad?tabs=gpo - suggests the GPO settings are machine wide for all users so maybe try installing the ADMX templates and configuring them.

[SJ98]

I have just had a look at the ADMX, is this relating to specifically AI integration into notepad? I thought the spellcheck feature would have been separate?

 

I have installed the ADMX and the only option that appears in GPO is 'Disable AI features in Notepad'.

[PentiumIIGuy]

I know you asked for Notepad but I had to do this for Word yesterday. Maybe you could do this as an alternative if you can't get Notepad to work. I followed this guide for a group policy and it worked well for me.

https://chronicbit.blogspot.com/2018/01/disabling-proofing-tools-and-related.html

 

[jthompson]

I had a look at adding deny privileges to the specific exe and dll files responsible for spellcheck in W11 Notepad, but it was a dead end.

Deny permissions on MsSpellCheckingHost.exe had no effect, and deny permissions on MsSpellCheckingFacility.dll prevented Notepad from launching at all. I think because it's an AppX package, some kind of manifest check fails if that DLL is not available, and so the app fails to launch.

[SJ98]

Thanks both.

I will have a check of the link in-case it proves useful.

I did try what bknaggs suggested, but this doesn't seem to have made any changes to our notepad spell checker.

 

On 05/03/2026 at 09:38, PentiumIIGuy said:

I know you asked for Notepad but I had to do this for Word yesterday. Maybe you could do this as an alternative if you can't get Notepad to work. I followed this guide for a group policy and it worked well for me.

https://chronicbit.blogspot.com/2018/01/disabling-proofing-tools-and-related.html

 

I'll see if this works for my issue, PentiumIIGuy.