Ultimate List of All Kinds of User Restrictions for Windows

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 operating system.

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 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 the following mentioned keys and create or modify DWORD values:

1. Restricting Desktop Properties (Personalization)

Go to following key:

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

Also check: How to Restrict Users from Changing Desktop Wallpaper in Windows?

2. Restricting Taskbar Properties

Go to following key:

Create new DWORD NoSetTaskbar and set its value to 1

3. Restricting System Properties

Go to following key:

Create new DWORD NoPropertiesMyComputer and set its value to 1

4. Restricting Folder Options

Go to following key:

Create new DWORD NoFolderOptions and set its value to 1

5. Restricting Registry Editor

Go to following key:

Create new DWORD DisableRegistryTools and set its value to 1

6. Restricting Task Manager

Go to following key:

Create new DWORD DisableTaskMgr and set its value to 1

7. Restricting Control Panel

Go to following key:

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:

Create new DWORD DisableCMD and set its value to 2

9. Restricting Locking/Unlocking of Taskbar

Go to following key:

Create new DWORD LockTaskbar and set its value to 1

10. Restricting right-click (context menu) on Taskbar

Go to following key:

Create new DWORD NoTrayContextMenu and set its value to 1

11. Restricting Toolbars in Taskbar

Go to following key:

Create new DWORD NoToolbarsOnTaskbar and set its value to 1

12. Restricting drag-and-drop and right-click (context menu) in Start Menu

Go to following key:

Create new DWORD NoChangeStartMenu and set its value to 1

13. Restricting RUN option in Start Menu

Go to following key:

Create new DWORD NoRun and set its value to 1

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

Go to following key:

Create new DWORD NoClose and set its value to 1

Also check following tutorial:

How to Restrict Windows Users from Accessing Shutdown Options at Login Screen?

15. Restricting Log off option in Start Menu

Go to following key:

Create new DWORD StartMenuLogOff and set its value to 1

16. Restricting Active Desktop Feature

Go to following key:

Create new DWORD NoActiveDesktop and set its value to 1

17. Restricting adding or removing items from Toolbars

Go to following key:

Create new DWORD NoToolbarCustomize and set its value to 1

18. Restricting adding or removing Toolbars

Go to following key:

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. Disabling notification of low disk space in Taskbar notification area (system tray)

Go to following key:

Create new DWORD NoLowDiskSpaceChecks and set its value to 1

21. Enabling Write Protection on USB Drives

Go to following key:

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 right-click menu (context menu)

Go to following key:

And delete the value of Default, e.g., empty it.

Also check:

How to Enable / Disable “New -> Shortcut” in Windows XP, Vista and 7 Context Menu?

23. Restricting “Send To” option in right-click menu (context menu)

Go to following key:

And delete the value of Default, e.g., empty it.

24. Restricting access to any desired application program

Go to following key:

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.

Also check following tutorial:

[Tip] Restrict Any Desired Program from Running in Windows

25. Restricting Drives in My Computer

Go to following key:

In right-side pane, create new DWORD NoViewOnDrive and change its value as following:

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.:

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

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

Difference between NoViewOnDrive and NoDrives is that NoViewOnDrive protects the drive so that no user can access that drive. On the other hand, NoDrives only hides the drive from My Computer window but users can still access that drive using RUN dialog box, address bar, etc.

Also check: How to Restrict / Hide / Remove Drives in Windows Explorer?

26. Restricting Settings and Options in Internet Explorer Web Browser

Check out following topics to restrict users from changing homepage and various settings in Internet Explorer:

How to Restrict Users from Changing Internet Explorer Homepage Settings?

How to Disable Options, Disable Tabs in Internet Explorer’s Internet Options Dialog Box?

How to Restrict Users from Deleting Browsing History Data in Internet Explorer?

[Tip] Enable Full Restricted Mode in Internet Explorer Web Browser

27. Restricting Desired Key in Keyboard or Changing Key Action

Check out following tutorial to customize any key behavior or disable a key permanently:

Customize or Disable Any Key in Your Keyboard Using SharpKeys

28. Restricting “Always use selected program to open this kind of file” Option in Open With Dialog Box?

Check out following tutorial to disable the “Always use selected program to open this kind of file” checkbox which appears in “Open With” dialog box:

How to Disable “Always use selected program to open this file” Option in Open With Dialog Box?

29. Restricting “Switch User” option in Windows Vista and Windows 7

Visit following article to learn how to disable “Switch User” option in Windows:

How to Disable “Switch User” Option in Windows Vista and 7?

30. Restricting Settings, Downloads, Bookmarks, etc in Mozilla Firefox

Check out following topic to restrict users from changing options, adding bookmarks, downloading files, etc in Mozilla Firefox:

How to Set Restrictions in Mozilla Firefox?

NOTE: If you want to remove a restriction, simply delete the new DWORD which you created to set the restriction or change its value to 0.

OK guys! That’s all for now. Above were some common restrictions which you might want to implement in your computer system. If you want to know about any specific restriction, please let me know in your comment.

PS: Mozilla Firefox users can use following extension to directly open the registry keys in Registry Editor:

Open in Regedit: Open Registry Keys Directly from Mozilla Firefox

Thanks to our reader “j_veen” for suggesting it…