Aug 07

Disable Control Panel Access in Windows Vista/XP

Windows Vista Guides, Windows XP Guides Add comments

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You may want to restrict access to the control panel and only allow administrative access. This is a very good idea if your children use an account or if you set up a computer in an office for an employee. Learn how to disable the control panel in this guide.

This guide is included as part of the Windows Guides security and administration series. Please visit the main page if you would like to learn why this guide may be useful.

Please Note: This guide involves the use of the Group Policy Editor, which is not included with Vista Home Premium/Basic or Windows XP Home. If this is the first time you are using the Group Policy Editor, read this guide.

Unfortunately I do not know how to do this tweak using only the registry. If you know how, please contact me.

Disabling the Control Panel

Start Group Policy Editor (Start > Run > “gpedit.msc”)
In the left panel, go to User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Control Panel
In the right panel, enable Prohibit access to the control panel