NoDrives

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

Data type	Range	Default value
REG_DWORD	0x0–0x3FFFFFF	0x0

Description

Removes the icons representing selected drives from My Computer and from Windows Explorer. Also, the drive letters representing the selected drives do not appear in the standard Open dialog box.

This entry stores the setting of the Hide these specified drives in My Computer Group Policy. Group Policy adds this entry to the registry when you enable the policy. If you disable the policy or set it to Not configured, Group Policy deletes this entry from the registry, and the system behaves as though the value is 0x0.

The value of this entry consists of 32 bits. The lower 26 bits each represent a drive, with the lowest (right-most) bit representing drive A, and the 26th bit from the right representing drive Z. To hide a drive, set the bit that corresponds to its drive letter to 1. To display a drive, set the bit that corresponds to its drive letter to 0. To hide all 26 drives, set all bits to 1, which corresponds to a value of 0x3FFFFFF.

Group Policy sets the value of this entry to one of the following values:

Value	Meaning
0x0	Do not restrict drives. All drives appear.
0x3	Restrict A and B drives only.
0x4	Restrict C drive only.
0x7	Restrict A, B, and C drives only.
0x8	Restrict D drive only.
0xF	Restrict A, B, C, and D drives only.
0x03FFFFFF	Restrict all drives.

Change method

To change the value of this entry, use Group Policy. This entry corresponds to the Hide these specified drives in My Computer Group Policy (User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Windows Explorer). Select a drive or a combination of drives from the drop-down list.

Note

This entry removes the drive icons. Users can still gain access to the contents of a drive by other methods, such as by typing the path to a directory on the drive in the Map Network Drive dialog box, in the Run dialog box, or in a command window.

This entry does not prevent users from using programs to access drives or their contents or from using the Disk Management snap-in to view or change drive characteristics.

By default, the system does not hide drives. Therefore, disabling the Hide these specified drives in My Computer policy, not configuring the policy, or enabling the policy and setting it to Do not restrict drives do not have any effect on the system.

Tip

For detailed information about particular Group Policy settings, see the Windows 2000 Resource Kit Group Policy Reference.

For general information about Group Policy, see Windows 2000 Server Help or Windows 2000 Professional Help.

To see a table associating policies with their corresponding registry entries, see the Group Policy Registry Table .

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