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Using Group Policy Objects to hide specified drives

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This article provides some information about using Group Policy Objects to hide specified drives.

Applies to:   Windows client (All supported versions)
Original KB number:   231289

Summary

With Group Policy Objects in Windows, there is a "Hide these specified drives in My Computer" option that lets you hide specific drives. However, it may be necessary to hide only certain drive, but retain access to others.

There are seven default options for restricting access to drives. You can add other restrictions by modifying the System.adm file for the default domain policy or any custom Group Policy Object (GPO). The seven default selections are:

  • Restrict A, B, C and D drives only
  • Restrict A, B and C drives only
  • Restrict A and B drives only
  • Restrict all drives
  • Restrict C drive only
  • Restrict D drive only
  • Do not restrict drives

Microsoft does not recommend to change the WindowsExplorer.admx file, but instead to create a new .admx file and import this .admx into the GPO. The reason is that if you apply changes to the WindowsExplorer.admx file, these changes might get overwritten if Microsoft releases a new version of the WindowsExplorer.admx file in a Service Pack.

More Information

The default location of the WindowsExplorer.admx file is:

C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions\WindowsExplorer.admx

Note

The Adm folder and its contents are not populated until the default domain policy is loaded for the first time.

To make changes to this policy for one of the seven default values:

  1. Start the Microsoft Management Console. On the Console menu, click Add/Remove Snap-in.
  2. Add the Group Policy snap-in for the default domain policy. To do this, click Browse when you are prompted to select a Group Policy Object (GPO). The default GPO is Local Computer. You can also add GPOs for other domain partitions (specifically, Organizational Units).
  3. Open the following sections: User Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, and File Explorer.
  4. Click Hide these specified drives in My Computer.
  5. Click to select the Hide these specified drives in My Computer check box.
  6. Click the appropriate option in the drop-down box.

These settings remove the icons representing the selected hard disks from My Computer, Windows Explorer, and My Network Places. Also, these drives do not appear in the Open dialog box of any programs.

This policy is designed to protect certain drives, including the floppy disk drive, from misuse. It can also be used to direct users to save their work to certain drives.

To use this policy, select a drive or combination of drives in the drop-down box. To display all drives (hide none), disable this policy or click the Do not restrict drives option.

This policy does not prevent users from using other programs to gain access to local and network drives or prevent them from viewing and changing drive characteristics by using the Disk Management snap-in.

The default values are not the only values that you can use. By editing the WindowsExplorer.admx file, you can add your own custom values. This is the portion of the WindowsExplorer.admx to be modified:

POLICY !!NoDrives  
     EXPLAIN !!NoDrives_Help  
        PART !!NoDrivesDropdown DROPDOWNLIST NOSORT REQUIRED  
           VALUENAME "NoDrives"  
            ITEMLIST  
                  NAME !!ABOnly VALUE NUMERIC 3  
                  NAME !!COnly VALUE NUMERIC 4  
                  NAME !!DOnly VALUE NUMERIC 8  
                  NAME !!ABConly VALUE NUMERIC 7  
                  NAME !!ABCDOnly VALUE NUMERIC 15  
                  NAME !!ALLDrives VALUE NUMERIC 67108863  
                  ;low 26 bits on (1 bit per drive)  
                  NAME !!RestNoDrives VALUE NUMERIC 0 (Default)  
            END ITEMLIST  
        END PART  
      END POLICY

[strings]  
ABCDOnly="Restrict A, B, C and D drives only"  
ABConly="Restrict A, B and C drives only"  
ABOnly="Restrict A and B drives only"  
ALLDrives="Restrict all drives"  
COnly="Restrict C drive only"  
DOnly="Restrict D drive only"  
RestNoDrives="Do not restrict drives"

The [strings] section represents substitutions of the actual values in the drop-down box.

This policy displays only specified drives on the client computer. The registry key that this policy affects uses a decimal number that corresponds to a 26-bit binary string, with each bit representing a drive letter:

11111111111111111111111111 ZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA

This configuration corresponds to 67108863 in decimal and hides all drives. If you want to hide drive C, make the third-lowest bit a 1, and then convert the binary string to decimal.

It is not necessary to create an option to show all drives, because clearing the check box deletes the "NoDrives" entry entirely, and all drives are automatically shown.

If you want to configure this policy to show a different combination of drives, create the appropriate binary string, convert to decimal, and add a new entry to the ITEMLIST section with a corresponding [strings] entry. For example, to hide drives L, M, N, and O, create the following string

00000000000111100000000000 ZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA

and convert to decimal. This binary string converts to 30720 in decimal. Add this line to the [strings] section in the System.adm file:

LMNO_Only="Restrict L, M, N and O drives only"

Add this entry in the ITEMLIST section above and save the System.adm file.

NAME !!LMNO_Only VALUE NUMERIC 30720

This creates an eighth entry in the drop-down box to hide drives L, M, N, and O only. Use this method to include more values in the drop-down box. The modified section of the WindowsExplorer.admx file appears as follows:

POLICY !!NoDrives  
     EXPLAIN !!NoDrives_Help  
        PART !!NoDrivesDropdown DROPDOWNLIST NOSORT REQUIRED  
           VALUENAME "NoDrives"  
            ITEMLIST  
                  NAME !!ABOnly VALUE NUMERIC 3  
                  NAME !!COnly VALUE NUMERIC 4  
                  NAME !!DOnly VALUE NUMERIC 8  
                  NAME !!ABConly VALUE NUMERIC 7  
                  NAME !!ABCDOnly VALUE NUMERIC 15  
                  NAME !!ALLDrives VALUE NUMERIC 67108863  
                  ;low 26 bits on (1 bit per drive)  
                  NAME !!RestNoDrives VALUE NUMERIC 0 (Default)  
                              NAME !!LMNO_Only VALUE NUMERIC 30720  
            END ITEMLIST
       END PART  
     END POLICY

[strings]  
ABCDOnly="Restrict A, B, C and D drives only"  
ABConly="Restrict A, B and C drives only"  
ABOnly="Restrict A and B drives only"  
ALLDrives="Restrict all drives"  
COnly="Restrict C drive only"  
DOnly="Restrict D drive only"  
RestNoDrives="Do not restrict drives"  
LMNO_Only="Restrict L, M, N and O drives only"

This [strings] section represents substitutions of the actual values in the drop-down box.