Removing “Network” from File Explorer

SOURCE: Winareo

Update I wouldn’t recommend this way.

1. Go to the following Registry key:

   HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{F02C1A0D-BE21-4350-88B0-7367FC96EF3C}\ShellFolder

2. Set the value data of the DWORD value Attributes to b0940064.If you are running a 64-bit operating system, repeat the steps above for the following Registry key:

   HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Wow6432Node\CLSID\{F02C1A0D-BE21-4350-88B0-7367FC96EF3C}}\ShellFolder

The Issue with this method is it requires you to take ownership of the key, usually by running regedit as system using psexec. I thought maybe if I created a GPO to deploy these  settings it would work, but instead got Error Code: 0x80070005, which apprently means access denied.

After farting around a bit down a rabbit hole about HKCR and how it’s apparently derived from HCLM\Software\Classes. I then decided to simply ask Google how to remove that icon via a GPO as much easier techniques usually exist. Where I found this Spice works thread post where a user by the name of Adam Sneed provided a adm file, which if you are unaware create configuration areas within GPMC to manage workstation. If you also know GPO’s generally when pushed down to client machines are nothing more then registry changes. So opening up the shared adm file from Adam shows the following:

CLASS User

CATEGORY !!Custom

CATEGORY !!ExplorerExtras

 POLICY !!HideNetworkInExplorer
 KEYNAME "SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\NonEnum"
 EXPLAIN !!HideNetworkInExplorer_Help
 VALUENAME "{F02C1A0D-BE21-4350-88B0-7367FC96EF3C}"
 VALUEON NUMERIC 1
 VALUEOFF NUMERIC 0
 END POLICY

END CATEGORY

END CATEGORY

[strings]
 Custom="Custom Policies"
 ExplorerExtras="Windows Explorer Extra's"
 HideNetworkInExplorer="Hide the Network Icon in Explorer 2008/Vista/Windows 7"
 HideNetworkInExplorer_Help="Enable this to hide the netowrk icon, disable or unconfigure to show the network icon."

As you can see the key we are interested in is “SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\NonEnum”

Checking it out manually on the client machine is HKLM, which I later found out is directly answered in this TechNet post.

Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key Path: SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\NonEnum
Value name: {F02C1A0D-BE21-4350-88B0-7367FC96EF3C}
Value type: REG_DWORD
Value Data (hex): 00000001

Doh