JSI Tip 3274. Can I hide selected Control Panel applets?

Windows 2000 provides two ways to hide selected Control Panel applets. You remove selected icons or include selected icons.

Who can implement the Hide specified control panel applets policy or the Show only specified control panel applets policy both at User ConfigurationAdministrative TemplatesControl Panel.

If the policies are Not Configured, you can implement them via the registry.

The Hide specified control panel applets policy is configured at:

HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionPoliciesExplorer

On the Edit menu, Add Value name DisallowCpl, as a REG_DWORD data type. Set the data value to 1.

On the Edit menu, Add Key name DisallowCpl. For each applet you wish to hide, add a REG_SZ value in the following format:

Sequence# REG_SZ Applet.cpl

The sequence number should start with 1 and list the applets you wish to hide, in alphabetical order. The applets are:

access.cplappwiz.cpldesk.cplfax.cplhdwwiz.cplinetcpl.cplintl.cplirprops.cpljoy.cplmain.cplmmsys.cplncpa.cplnwc.cplodbccp32.cplpowercfg.cplsticpl.cplsysdm.cpltelephon.cpltimedate.cpl

The Show only specified control panel applets policy uses the RestrictCpl value name and sub-key exactly the same way, except items in the list are included.

These entries simply hide the icons, they don't prevent the user from running the applet with
RunDLL32 shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL c:winntsystem32 or
Control c:winntsystem32.cpl,.

NOTE: The Hide... policy takes precedence over the Show... policy.