NW Doc

Some important and useful restrictions, which can be put in Windows 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista, Server 2008 and 7.

A. Open Registry Editor

To open Registry Editor by providing regedit command in RUN or Start menu Search box and press Enter.

B. Create Registry Key

Go to following keys:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Policies\System

1. Restricting Desktop Properties

Create or modify required DWORD value: NoDispCPL and set its value to 1

2. Restricting Task Manager

Create new DWORD DisableTaskMgr and set its value to 1

3. Restricting Registry Editor

Create new DWORD DisableRegistryTools and set its value to 1

Go to following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Policies\Explorer

4. Restricting Taskbar Properties

Create new DWORD NoSetTaskbar and set its value to 1

5. Restricting System Properties

Create new DWORD NoPropertiesMyComputer and set its value to 1

6. Restricting Folder Options

Create new DWORD NoFolderOptions and set its value to 1

7. Restricting Control Panel

Create new DWORD NoControlPanel and set its value to 1

8. Restricting Locking/Unlocking of Taskbar

Create new DWORD LockTaskbar and set its value to 1

9. Restricting right-click on Taskbar

Create new DWORD NoTrayContextMenu and set its value to 1

10. Restricting Toolbars in Taskbar

Create new DWORD NoToolbarsOnTaskbar and set its value to 1

11. Restricting drag-and-drop and right-click in Start Menu

Create new DWORD NoChangeStartMenu and set its value to 1

12. Restricting RUN in Start Menu

Create new DWORD NoRun and set its value to 1

13. Restricting Shut Down, Restart, Sleep and Hibernate commands

Create new DWORD NoClose and set its value to 1

14. Restricting Log off in Start Menu

Create new DWORD StartMenuLogOff and set its value to 1

15. Restricting Active Desktop Feature

Create new DWORD NoActiveDesktop and set its value to 1

16. Restricting adding/removing items to/from Toolbars

Create new DWORD NoToolbarCustomize and set its value to 1

17. Restricting adding/removing Toolbars

Create new DWORD NoBandCustomize and set its value to 1

18. Restricting notification at low disk space

Create new DWORD NoLowDiskSpaceChecks and set its value to 1

19. 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

20. 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

21. 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.

22. 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.

23. 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.

24. 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

*You can also hide the drives using NoDrives DWORD value. The location and its value remain same as the above trick.

*If you want to remove the restriction, simply delete the DWORD or set its value to 0

Tweaks- for change in Windows Desktop and My Computer Context Menu

* For Change in Desktop Context Menu

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\DesktopBackground\Shell

* For Change in My Computer Context Menu

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}\shell

Add your name at top of the menu and can open any program, Explorer, Documents folder or User Accounts by clicking on it in Windows 7 Desktop Context Menu

Steps:

1. Type regedit in RUN or startmenu search box and press Enter. It'll open Registry Editor.

2. Now go to:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\DesktopBackground\Shell

3. Now we'll need to create a new key under "Shell" key. Right-click on "Shell" key and select "New -> Key". Give the new key any desired name e.g. "Yash" (without quotes).

4. Now in right-side pane, change value of "Default" to your desired name which you want to show in Desktop context menu. We have chosen !!~~YASH~~!! in our example.

5. Now right-click on the new key which we created in step 3, e.g. Yash and select "New -> Key". Give the new key name of command.

6. In right-side pane, change value of "Default" to explorer.exe if you want to open Explorer by clicking on it.

7. To set an icon for the shortcut, select the key created in Step 3 and in right-side pane, create a new String value "Icon". Set its value to your desired icon. We have set it to imageres.dll,207.

*To set its position in the context menu, create a new String value "Position" and set its value to:

Top (To show it at top)
Bottom (To show it at bottom)

Add "System Properties", "Task Manager" and Many Other Useful Shortcuts in Windows 7 Desktop Context Menu

Steps:

1. & 2. are same

3. Now we'll need to create a new key under "Shell" key. Right-click on "Shell" key and select "New -> Key". Give the new key any desired name e.g. "Folder Options" (without quotes).

4. Now we'll need to create another new key. Right-click on the new key which we created in the last step e.g. Folder Options and select "New -> Key". Give the new key name of "command".

5. Now select "command" key and in right-side pane, you'll see "Default" String value. Double-click on it and set its value to as following:

control folders

6. That's it. Now you'll have a new option "Folder Options" in Desktop context menu.

7. You can use the same steps 3-5 to add other options. Simply give the desired option label in Step 3 and set the required command in Step 5. Following are the required codes which you'll need to provide as "command" in step 5:

Administrative Tools: control admintools

Change Cursor: control main.cpl,,1

Change Date / Time: control timedate.cpl

Change Regional Settings: control intl.cpl

Folder Options: control folders

Fonts: control fonts

Internet Options: control inetcpl.cpl

Network Connections:control ncpa.cpl

Power Options: control powercfg.cpl

Printers: control printers

Programs and Features: control appwiz.cpl

Registry Editor: regedit

Security Center: control wscui.cpl

Security Configuration: msconfig

System Properties: control sysdm.cpl

Task Manager: taskmgr

Task Scheduler: Control schedtasks

Turn Firewall On / Off: control firewall.cpl

User Accounts: Control userpasswords

User Accounts Classic: Control userpasswords2

8. That's it.

9. You can add any other desired control panel applet using the same way.

Add any application shortcut in desktop context menu of Windows

Steps:

1. to 4. are same

5. Now select "command" key and in right-side pane, you'll see "Default" String value. Double-click on it and set its value to as following:

C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\wmplayer.exe
C:\Program Files\Winamp\winamp.exe
etc...

6. Thats it. Now you can check your favorite application shortcut in desktop context menu.

7. You can create as many shortcut as you want. Simply create a separate key for all the applications.

Add Cascading Menus in Desktop Context Menu:

PART 1: Creating cascading menus and adding programs shortcuts

1. & 2. are same

3. Now we'll need to create a new key under "Shell" key. Right-click on "Shell" key and select "New -> Key". Give the new key any desired name e.g. "Menu1" (without quotes).

4. Now select this newly created key "Menu1" and in right-side pane, we'll need to create following 4 String values:
MUIVerb
SubCommands
Icon
Position

* Icon and Position are optional but MUIVerb and SubCommands are compulsory.

* MUIVerb contains the name of cascading menu which will be displayed in the context menu. You can set its value to any desired name like Apps, Browsers, etc. Feel free to set any name.

* SubCommands contains list of commands separated by semi-colon (;) which you want to show under cascading menu. You can't add any program shortcut directly. First you'll need to give any desired command name in this list and after that you'll need to register it using PART 2 so that it can start working.

5. If you are confused about "SubCommands" String value, this point will clear all your doubts.

Suppose you have created a cascading menu "Apps" using Step 3 and now you want to add Notepad and Calculator shortcuts under it. In this case, you'll need to set following as "SubCommands" value:

notepad;calc

Above value can be changed according to your requirement. You can use np;ca instead of notepad;calc. But you'll have to use the same name while registering those commands using PART 2.

* If you want to put a separator between menus, just use Pipe symbol (|) between commands. For example, notepad;|;calc.

6. Icon String value can be used to show an icon for your cascading menu. We have set its value to explorer.exe that's why its showing Windows Explorer icon for the "Apps" cascading menu.

7. Position String value can be used to define the position of cascading menu in the context menu. By default the cascading menu is shown in the middle but you can set its position at Top or Bottom with the help of "Position" String value.

8. You can create more than one cascading menus using Step 3 and 4.

PART 2: Adding functionality to the shortcuts by registering them

Once you have added the program shortcuts to cascading menus, you'll need to register the commands mentioned in "SubCommands" String value using following method:

1. Go to following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CommandStore\Shell

2. Under this key, we'll need to create new keys for each command mentioned in "SubCommands" String value.

We used 2 commands : notepad and calc, so we'll need to create 2 keys under "CommandStore\Shell" key with the same names notepad and calc.

3. Once you create the key, select it and in right-side pane set value of "(Default)" to the name which you want to show in cascading menu. For example set its value to Notepad or Calculator or any other desired string.

4. If you also want to show an icon for it, create a new String value with the name icon and set its value to program's EXE file path or any other desired icon. For example, to show Notepad icon for Notepad shortcut, you can set value of Icon to notepad.exe

5. Now final step! Create a new key under the recently created keys, e.g. notepad or calc and give it name command.

Click on it and in right-side pane, set value of "(Default)" to the path of your desired program's EXE file. For example, if you want to open Notepad when you click on "Notepad" entry in cascading menu, set value of "Command" to notepad.exe

* Notepad is a Windows application, so you can omit the full path but if you want to execute any 3rd party program, you should give full path of its EXE file.

That's it. Now you'll see your desired cascading menus containing your favorite programs shortcuts in Desktop context menus.

* Define the shortcut icon and position.

To set an icon for the shortcut, select the key created in Step 3 and in right-side pane, create a new String value "Icon". Set its value to your desired icon or simply put the path of program's EXE file and it'll automatically show its default icon.

To set its position in the context menu, create a new String value "Position" and set its value to:

Top (To show it at top)
Bottom (To show it at bottom)

*To remove any option, simply delete its key.