Tuesday, July 29, 2008

All Kinds of Restrictions for Win 2000, XP, 2003 and Vista

1.) Restrict Display Properties:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Policies\System

create DWORD value NoDispCPLand set its value to 1

2.) Restrict Taskbar Properties:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Policies\Explorer

create DWORD value NoSetTaskbar and set its value to 1

3.) Restrict Folder Options:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Policies\Explorer

create DWORD value NoFolderOptions and set its value to 1

4.) Restrict Locking/Unlocking the taskbar:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Policies\Explorer

create DWORD value LockTaskbar and set its value to 1

5.) Restrict Active Desktop:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Policies\Explorer

create DWORD value NoActiveDesktop and set its value to 1

6.) Restrict adding/deleting items from Toolbars:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Policies\Explorer

create DWORD value NoToolbarCustomize and set its value to 1

7.) Restrict adding/deleting toolbars:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Policies\Explorer

create DWORD value NoBandCustomizeand set its value to 1

8.) Restrict right-click in Start Menu:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Policies\Explorer

create DWORD value NoChangeStartMenu and set its value to 1

9.) Restrict Desktop Cleanup Wizard:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Policies\Explorer

create DWORD value NoDesktopCleanupWizard and set its value to 1

10.) Restrict notification at low disk space:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Policies\Explorer

create DWORD value NoLowDiskSpaceChecks and set its value to 1

11.) Restrict Taskbar Context Menu:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Policies\Explorer

create DWORD value NoTrayContextMenu and set its value to 1

12.) Restrict Programs to run:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Policies\Explorer\DisallowRun

create String value with any name, like 1 and set its value to the program’s EXE file.

e.g., If u want to restrict msconfig, then create a String value 1 and set its value to msconfig.exe. If u want to restrict more programs, then simply create more String values with names 2, 3 and so on and set their values to the program’s exe.

13.) Restrict Registry Editor:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Policies\System

create DWORD value DisableRegistryTools and set its value to 1

14.) Restrict Task Manager:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Policies\System

create DWORD value DisableTaskMgr and set its value to 1

15.) Restrict Writing to USB Drives:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Current Control Set\Control\StorageDevicePolicies

Create DWORD value WriteProtect and set its value to 1

16.) Restrict New option in context menu:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shellex\ContextMenu Handlers\New

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

17.) Restrict Send To in context menu:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AllFilesystemObjects\shellex\ContextMenu Handlers\Send To

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

18.) Restrict Balloon Tips:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Explorer\Advanced

Create DWORD value EnableBalloonTips and set its value to 0

19.) Restrict Users to enable New XP StartMenu:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Policies\Explorer

Create DWORD value NoSimpleStartMenu and set its value to 1

20.) Restrict Command Prompt:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System

Create DWORD value DisableCMD and set its value to 2

21.) Restrict Drives in My Computer:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Policies\Explorer

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

3 : To Restrict A and B drives only.
4 : To Restrict C drive only.
7 : To Restrict A, B, and C drives only.
8 : To Restrict D drive only.
F : To Restrict A, B, C, and D drives only.
03FFFFFF : To Restrict all drives.

And if you want more specific restrictions, like you want to restrict a combination of other drives, then you can use decimal no. instead of hexadecimal no. Following is a list for all drives decimal no.:

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

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 CDEF drives, give the value: 4+8+16+32 = 60

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

22.) Restrict RUN in New XP StartMenu:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Policies\Explorer

Create DWORD value NoRun and set its value to 1

1. Run commands in Windows

There are several commands which can be accessed from the Run menu in Windows. Here is a link which explain all commands with examples.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb491071.aspx

2. Broad Band Speed Test

Visit the link to have a speed test on download and upload speeds.

http://www.speedtest.net/

3. BSNL Broad band Speed Test
http://speedtest.dataone.in:83/bandwidthmeter/initialmeter.php

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Disable USB drives

If we are using an Office PC, it'd be very difficult to disallow access to any of our colleagues and their USB drives, which might be thriving with viruses. It so happens that our flash drives are clean and those of others are full of viruses. Any way, there is no way to limit the access.

However, there is a way!

Open regedit and go to HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\USBStor.

Select the key 'Start'. Its value will be 3 by default. Change it to 4 and USB drives will be disabled. To enable them, change the value back to 3.

This works in Win XP. However, the source site says it will work on Win 2000 and 2003 as well.