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Hide physical drives in Windows Explorer

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Author:

Raghu Boddu MVP

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SUMMARY

Hiding the individual physical/removable/optical drives in My computer is possible in Windows XP using the "NoDrives" registry entry. This is equivalent to the Hide these specified drives in My Computer Group Policy.

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RESOLUTION

The NoDrives entry hides the specified drives from My Computer, Windows Explorer, and in the Send To menu. However, you can have access to the required drive from Start, Run.
 
You can use the corresponding registry value should be used to hide the required drive:
 
A: 01 00 00 00
B: 02 00 00 00
C: 04 00 00 00
D: 08 00 00 00
E: 10 00 00 00
F: 20 00 00 00
G: 40 00 00 00
H: 80 00 00 00
I: 00 01 00 00
J: 00 02 00 00
K: 00 04 00 00
L: 00 08 00 00
M: 00 10 00 00
N: 00 20 00 00
O: 00 40 00 00
P: 00 80 00 00
Q: 00 00 01 00
R: 00 00 02 00
S: 00 00 04 00
T: 00 00 08 00
U: 00 00 10 00
V: 00 00 20 00
W: 00 00 40 00
X: 00 00 80 00
Y: 00 00 00 01
Z: 00 00 00 02
 
Go to Windows registry Editor.
Navigate to the following path:
 
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
 
In the right-pane, create a new Binary entry "NoDrives"
Enter the corresponding binary value.
Save and restart Windows.

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MORE INFORMATION

NOTE: Performing these steps in Windows XP Professional Edition will remove the encrypted password data. Don't perform these steps, in case if you have any encrypted passwords.

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Keywords: kb, KB555438, kbhowto, kbpubtypecca, kbpubmvp

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Article Info
Article ID : 555438
Revision : 3
Created on : 8/19/2020
Published on : 8/20/2020
Exists online : False
Views : 411