Many times people access our system and change our customized settings here and there. Wouldn't it be great if we can restrict them to change the settings and other things like restrict from changing Folder Options, Taskbar settings, Desktop settings, etc.
Today in this tutorial, we'll share a list of some important and useful restrictions, which can be put in Windows 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista, Server 2008 and 7.
STEP 1: Open Registry Editor
All restrictions are based on Registry editing. So you'll need to open Registry Editor by providing regedit command in RUN or Start menu Search box and press Enter. After that go to the registry key mentioned in step 2.
STEP 2: Create Registry Key
Once you are in Registry Editor. Go to following keys and create or modify required DWORD value as mentioned below:
1. Restricting Desktop Properties
Go to following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Policies\System
Create new DWORD NoDispCPL and set its value to 1
If you want to restrict any particular tab in Desktop Properties like Themes, Screen Saver, etc, you can take help of following tutorial:
How to Enable / Disable Changing Themes, Wallpapers, Screen Savers and Other Settings
2. Restricting Taskbar Properties
Go to following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Policies\Explorer
Create new DWORD NoSetTaskbar and set its value to 1
3. Restricting System Properties
Go to following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Policies\Explorer
Create new DWORD NoPropertiesMyComputer and set its value to 1
4. Restricting Folder Options
Go to following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Policies\Explorer
Create new DWORD NoFolderOptions and set its value to 1
5. Restricting Registry Editor
Go to following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Policies\System
Create new DWORD DisableRegistryTools and set its value to 1
6. Restricting Task Manager
Go to following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Policies\System
Create new DWORD DisableTaskMgr and set its value to 1
7. Restricting Control Panel
Go to following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Policies\Explorer
Create new DWORD NoControlPanel and set its value to 1
Also check following tutorial:
How to Hide / Show Specific Control Panel Applets / Icons in Windows?
8. Restricting Command Prompt
Go to following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System
Create new DWORD DisableCMD and set its value to 2
9. Restricting Locking/Unlocking of Taskbar
Go to following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Policies\Explorer
Create new DWORD LockTaskbar and set its value to 1
10. Restricting right-click on Taskbar
Go to following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Policies\Explorer
Create new DWORD NoTrayContextMenu and set its value to 1
11. Restricting Toolbars in Taskbar
Go to following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Policies\Explorer
Create new DWORD NoToolbarsOnTaskbar and set its value to 1
12. Restricting drag-and-drop and right-click in Start Menu
Go to following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Policies\Explorer
Create new DWORD NoChangeStartMenu and set its value to 1
13. Restricting RUN in Start Menu
Go to following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Policies\Explorer
Create new DWORD NoRun and set its value to 1
14. Restricting Shut Down, Restart, Sleep and Hibernate commands
Go to following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Policies\Explorer
Create new DWORD NoClose and set its value to 1
15. Restricting Log off in Start Menu
Go to following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Policies\Explorer
Create new DWORD StartMenuLogOff and set its value to 1
16. Restricting Active Desktop Feature
Go to following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Policies\Explorer
Create new DWORD NoActiveDesktop and set its value to 1
17. Restricting adding/removing items to/from Toolbars
Go to following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Policies\Explorer
Create new DWORD NoToolbarCustomize and set its value to 1
18. Restricting adding/removing Toolbars
Go to following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Policies\Explorer
Create new DWORD NoBandCustomize and set its value to 1
19. Restricting Autorun Feature
Visit following tutorial:
How to Disable Autorun Functionality in Windows Using Registry Editor?
20. Restricting notification at low disk space
Go to following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Policies\Explorer
Create new DWORD NoLowDiskSpaceChecks and set its value to 1
21. Restricting Writing to USB Drives
Go to following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Current Control Set\Control\StorageDevicePolicies
Create new DWORD WriteProtect and set its value to 1
Also check following tutorial:
How to Disable / Restrict Use of USB Storage Devices in Windows?
22. Restricting "New" option in context menu
Go to following key:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shellex\ContextMenu Handlers\New
And delete the value of Default, e.g., empty it.
23. Restricting "Send To" option in context menu
Go to following key:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AllFilesystemObjects\shellex\ContextMenu Handlers\Send To
And delete the value of Default, e.g., empty it.
24. Restricting any desired application
Go to following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Policies\Explorer\DisallowRun
Create new String value with any name, like 1 and set its value to the desired program's EXE file.
e.g., If you want to restrict msconfig, then create a String value 1 and set its value to msconfig.exe. If you want to restrict more programs, simply create more String values with names 2, 3 and so on and set their values to the program's exe file.
25. Restricting Drives in My Computer
Go to following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Policies\Explorer
In right-side pane, create new DWORD NoViewOnDrive and change its value as following:
3 : To Restrict A and B drives only.
4 : To Restrict C drive only.
7 : To Restrict A, B, and C drives only.
8 : To Restrict D drive only.
F : To Restrict A, B, C, and D drives only.
03FFFFFF : To Restrict all drives.
If you want more specific restrictions, like you want to restrict a combination of drives, you can use decimal no. instead of hexadecimal no. Following is a list for all drives decimal no.:
A: 1
B: 2
C: 4
D: 8
E: 16
F: 32
G: 64
H: 128
I: 256
J: 512
K: 1024
L: 2048
M: 4096
N: 8192
O: 16384
P: 32768
Q: 65536
R: 131072
S: 262144
T: 524288
U: 1048576
V: 2097152
W: 4194304
X: 8388608
Y: 16777216
Z: 33554432
ALL: 67108863
So if you want to disable a combination of drives, just sum their numbers and give the same value to NoViewOnDrive. e.g., for restricting C, D, E and F drives, give the value: 4+8+16+32 = 60
NOTE: You can also hide the drives using NoDrives DWORD value. The location and its value remain same as the above trick.
That's all. Above are some common restrictions, if you want to know about any specific restriction, please let us know.
NOTE: If you want to remove the restriction, simply delete the DWORD or set its value to 0
