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Remove Printers and Faxes from Start Menu

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by a former member 1 view

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Is there a way to remove Printers and Faxes from the Start Menu? I've been using Group Policy Editor to remove items from the Start Menu (My Computer, Control Panel, etc.) but I can't seem to find the option to remove Printers and Faxes from the Start Menu. I'm restricting a group of users in my network from using any application other than what is given to their desktop. I certainly denied them access to the applications available on their workstations and the ability to navigate the contents of it. the only thing left is to prevent them from using other printers that are set into their stations as well as prevent any changes to its settings.

10 replies

by Former member

Clarifications

by ashishs

Start > Run > gpedit.msc
Then go to: User Configuration > Administrative Template > Start Menu and Taskbar.
On the right side, Enable Remove Programs on Settings Menu.
This works on WinXP. Don't know about Win2K.

by Former member

hi,
i've tried this one already and it didn't work. is there any other setting/s in the policy editor that needs to be enabled?im using winxp professional.

by ashishs

Right click on Taskbar and choose Properties.
Start Menu > Customize > Advanced.
Go down the list and uncheck Printers, Run Command etc.

In order to do this, you have to login using the account you want to have limited access & make sure that account has access to make changes to the properties. You can always make them a part of Admins or Power Users for the time being, make the changes and make them part of Standard Users again.

by Former member

hi,

is there a centralized way of removing this like what the group policy editor do?this could be tedious as many users will be using the stations.

by ashishs

What I would do is create a generic user account and set it to auto login on the PCs you want to have limited access on. We have done the same thing here for computers in the learning center and in patient rooms. This way, the user logged in is a part of the domain, but has very limited privileges. Create the generic user, log in as the user on the pc and configure it the way you want it to look.

by Former member

i see your point but unfortunately we have a different setup here in our office. a group of employees in our office will be using a set of workstations and there is a possibility that they would be using a different station from the set on a different day. and there's also a possibility that new employees would join this group so to minimize reapplying the setting on each profile, i would set it on the group policy editor if the option is available. the users cannot share one generic account in our setup. by the way thanks for the replies.

by k.hoopes

I hope you have already gotten a solution by now, and if so, please share it with me. I have recently went this route with a particualar division of users, and the closest I could get to making this a painless process is by creating a user, removing the printers and faxes through start menu (as well as several other changes) and then copying it over to the default user profile in the System Properties.

Look at MS KB Article 319974 for details on how to use the default user account to configure new users automatically.

Unfortunately this wont work for the users you already have, but maybe for future reference.

If you found a GP or centralized method of doing it, maybe via a startup script, please share.

by link470

I'm very surprised there still isn't an update for this. I'm trying to do the exact same thing. Microsoft includes the option to remove everything from the start menu EXCEPT Printers and Faxes from what I can see. They also don't allow you to remove Programs if you're using the classic start menu, so to get around that I set the start menu classic policy to disable to force the new look. That makes the All Programs policy work, since All Programs and Programs are apparently two completely different things in the policy world.

by deva_athish

Please help me is there anyway to hide /remove "control panel" from start menu,in windows server 2008 r2, only for remote desktop users. those who connected remotely

Steps i am tried :-
1, I am tried by creating GPO for the corresponding OU and applied and enabled this gpo "prohibit access to the control panel" its doesn't work ..

2.,i am tried applying outside OU by entering this command through RUN "gpedit.msc" and below the user configuration / administrative template /control panel and applied and enabled gpo "prohibit access to the control panel"but it's disabled control panel in win server 2008 start menu ..

kindly help me to Resolve this issue ...

Thanks
Deva
Senior Network Administrator

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