Registry Guide for Windows Registry Guide for Windows
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Registry tweaks, tricks & hacks to optimize, enhance and secure Microsoft Windows.

Prevent Access to the Contents of Selected Drives (Windows 2000/Me/XP)
Category: Home > Security

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This restriction prevents users from using My Computer or Explorer to access the content of selected drives. Also, they cannot use Run, Map Network Drive, or the Dir command to view the directories on these drives.

Open your registry and find or create the key below.

The "NoViewOnDrive" value uses a 32-bit bitmask to define local and network drive access for each logical drive in the computer. The lower 26 bits of the 32-bit word correspond to drive letters A through Z. Drives are visible when set to 0 and hidden when set to 1.

If your not happy working in Hex, add these decimal numbers to hide the drive(s):

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

For example to hide drive A and drive D, you would add 1 (A) + 8 (D) which means the value should be set to "9".

To disable all the drives set the value to "67108863".

Restart Windows for the change to take effect.

Registry Editor Example
|NameTypeData|
|(Default)REG_SZ(value not set)|
|NoViewOnDriveREG_DWORD0x00000004 (4)|
-
|HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Exp...|
-

Settings:
User Key: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\
Explorer]

System Key: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\
Explorer]

Name: NoViewOnDrive
Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)
Value: 32-bit bitmask

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Disclaimer: Modifying the registry can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. We cannot guarantee that problems resulting from modifications to the registry can be solved. Use the information provided at your own risk.

Last Modified: May 13, 2003

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