Hiding programs

To prevent the use of features that should only be accessible to a limited group of users, they can be blocked or hidden through operating system functions.

Programs and their execution can also be restricted by whitelisting measures.

See also:

Whitelisting for programs

Under Windows, the following functions can be hidden via changes in the registry:

Registry

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System

An entry with the name "DisableRegistryTool" and value 1 prevents a user from starting a registry editor.

Command prompt

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System

An entry called "DisableCMD" has a different effect depending on the value:

Network Environment

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\NonEum\

A DWORD entry with the name "{F02C1A0D-BE21-4350-88B0-7367FC96EF3C}" and value 1 hides the network environment.

Individual drive letters

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\

REG_DWORD entries with the names "NoViewOnDrive" and "NoDrives" can be used to configure which drive letters should be restricted. "NoViewOnDrives" restricts access to drives. "NoDrives" only hides the drive letters. Access is still possible. The value to be entered is the sum of the entries for the corresponding letters in the following table:

A: 1

G: 64

M: 4096

S: 262144

Y: 16777216

B: 2

H: 128

N: 8192

T: 524288

Z: 33554432

C: 4

I: 256

O: 16384

U: 1048576

All: 67108863

D: 8

J: 512

P: 32768

V: 2097152

 

E: 16

K: 1024

Q: 65536

W: 4194304

 

F: 32

L: 2048

R: 131072

X: 8388608

 

For example, to restrict access to drives A, B, D and P, enter the value 1 + 2 + 8 + 32768 = 32779. After setting the value, the operating system must be restarted for the setting to take effect.

Further setting options are summarized here.