Disabling a few Control Panel icons is useful
because it reduces a bit of the clutter in the All Control Panel Items
window. However, what if you want to set up a computer for a novice
user, and you’d like that person to have access to just a few
relatively harmless icons, such as Personalization and Getting Started?
In that case, it’s way
too much work to disable most of the icons, one at a time. A much
easier approach is to specify just those few Control Panel icons you
want the user to see. Here’s how:
1. | Select Start, type gpedit.msc, and then click gpedit in the results. The Local Group Policy Editor appears.
|
2. | Select the User Configuration, Administrative Templates, Control Panel branch.
|
3. | Double-click the Show Only Specified Control Panel Items policy.
|
4. | Click the Enabled Option.
|
5. | Click the Show button. The Show Contents dialog box appears.
|
6. | For each Control Panel icon you want to show, type the icon name and press Enter.
|
7. | Click OK to return to the Show Only Specified Control Panel Items dialog box.
|
8. | Click OK. Windows 7 puts the policy into effect.
|
While
you’ve got the Local Group Policy Editor up and running, consider the
other two Control Panel-related policies that appear in the User
Configuration, Administrative Templates, Control Panel branch:
Always Open All Control Panel Items When Opening Control Panel—
If you enable this policy, Control Panel is always displayed in the All
Control Panel Items window, and the user can’t change to the Home Page
view. If you disable this policy, Control Panel is always displayed in
the Home Page view, and the user can’t change to the All Control Panel
Items window.
Prohibit Access to the Control Panel— If you enable this policy, users can’t access Control Panel using the Start menu or control.exe executable.
