Prevent access to drives from My Computer

Prevents users from using My Computer to gain access to the content of selected drives.

If you enable this setting, users can browse the directory structure of the selected drives in My Computer or File Explorer, but they cannot open folders and access the contents. Also, they cannot use the Run dialog box or the Map Network Drive dialog box to view the directories on these drives.

To use this setting, select a drive or combination of drives from the drop-down list. To allow access to all drive directories, disable this setting or select the "Do not restrict drives" option from the drop-down list.

Note: The icons representing the specified drives still appear in My Computer, but if users double-click the icons, a message appears explaining that a setting prevents the action.

Also, this setting does not prevent users from using programs to access local and network drives. And, it does not prevent them from using the Disk Management snap-in to view and change drive characteristics.

Also, see the "Hide these specified drives in My Computer" setting.

Supported on: At least Windows 2000

Pick one of the following combinations


  1. Restrict A and B drives only
    Registry HiveHKEY_CURRENT_USER
    Registry PathSoftware\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
    Value NameNoViewOnDrive
    Value TypeREG_DWORD
    Value3
  2. Restrict C drive only
    Registry HiveHKEY_CURRENT_USER
    Registry PathSoftware\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
    Value NameNoViewOnDrive
    Value TypeREG_DWORD
    Value4
  3. Restrict D drive only
    Registry HiveHKEY_CURRENT_USER
    Registry PathSoftware\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
    Value NameNoViewOnDrive
    Value TypeREG_DWORD
    Value8
  4. Restrict A, B and C drives only
    Registry HiveHKEY_CURRENT_USER
    Registry PathSoftware\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
    Value NameNoViewOnDrive
    Value TypeREG_DWORD
    Value7
  5. Restrict A, B, C and D drives only
    Registry HiveHKEY_CURRENT_USER
    Registry PathSoftware\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
    Value NameNoViewOnDrive
    Value TypeREG_DWORD
    Value15
  6. Restrict all drives
    Registry HiveHKEY_CURRENT_USER
    Registry PathSoftware\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
    Value NameNoViewOnDrive
    Value TypeREG_DWORD
    Value67108863
  7. Do not restrict drives
    Registry HiveHKEY_CURRENT_USER
    Registry PathSoftware\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
    Value NameNoViewOnDrive
    Value TypeREG_DWORD
    Value0


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