Removing Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, and Videos Folders from Navigation Pane

Removing Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, and Videos Folders from Navigation Pane

For a recent XenApp 7.6 project, the IT Manager wanted no one to access various folders shown in the Navigation pane in Explorer, Save, or SaveAs dialogs. This article shows how I solved this request.

Note: This article was updated on 28-Feb-2017 with information some people had requested from Alain Assaf. Alain’s updates are at the bottom of this article.

Updated on 2-Dec-2019 with the missing MSDN link for Default Known Folders in Windows.

The manager wanted the Desktop, Documents and other folders, as shown in Figure 1, removed from under “This PC” for all users for every published resource on every XenApp 7.6 server.

Figure 1
Figure 1

All that should remain is the Local C drive and any mapped drives the user had access to.

The only way I could find to do this is by deleting data from the registry. Insert standard disclaimer for mucking around in the registry here. Make sure you make a backup of the registry keys involved before implementing these changes.

I created a group policy with a Computer Startup script. I named my script DeleteFoldersFromNavigationPane.bat, which has the following content:

reg delete HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MyComputer\NameSpace\{B4BFCC3A-DB2C-424C-B029-7FE99A87C641} /f
reg delete HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MyComputer\NameSpace\{A8CDFF1C-4878-43be-B5FD-F8091C1C60D0} /f
reg delete HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MyComputer\NameSpace\{374DE290-123F-4565-9164-39C4925E467B} /f
reg delete HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MyComputer\NameSpace\{1CF1260C-4DD0-4ebb-811F-33C572699FDE} /f
reg delete HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MyComputer\NameSpace\{3ADD1653-EB32-4cb0-BBD7-DFA0ABB5ACCA} /f
reg delete HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MyComputer\NameSpace\{A0953C92-50DC-43bf-BE83-3742FED03C9C} /f

My apologies, but I forgot to save the link to the MSDN article that gave the {CLSID} values for the various folders, and now I can’t find the article.

Update on 2-Dec-2019: I get a lot of requests for other folders. I finally found the MSDN article.

Default Known Folders in Windows

The values for the various folders:

Desktop:   {B4BFCC3A-DB2C-424C-B029-7FE99A87C641}
Documents: {A8CDFF1C-4878-43be-B5FD-F8091C1C60D0}
Downloads: {374DE290-123F-4565-9164-39C4925E467B}
Music:     {1CF1260C-4DD0-4ebb-811F-33C572699FDE}
Pictures:  {3ADD1653-EB32-4cb0-BBD7-DFA0ABB5ACCA}
Videos:    {A0953C92-50DC-43bf-BE83-3742FED03C9C}

PLEASE MAKE A BACKUP of the following registry key BEFORE using this StartUp script.

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\explorer\MyComputer\NameSpace

Once the group policy and script have been created and linked to the Organizational Unit that contains your XenApp 7.x servers, the folders will be removed for EVERY user, as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2
Figure 2

I could not find a way to make this per user, only per computer. Sorry about that.

I personally think this is an ugly solution but the only solution I could come up with within the time I had.

Update 28-Feb-2017 by Alain Assaf:

To apply these settings to a Windows 2012 R2 deployment, I did the following.

I created a User Policy that I applied to all of my W2012R2 XenApp Servers. I created a Registry Collection and added the following registry settings to remove items from the Navigation Pane within this policy. You will notice some duplication below. In my environment, I had to hide the regular favorites shortcut along with the Library shortcut. In addition, I found different CLSID values for Music, Pictures, Videos, and Documents, so I applied these as well. Note the websites listed in the descriptions below. These sites led me to use a particular registry setting.

 

Collection HidingItemsNavPane
Common
Options
Stop processing items on this extension if an error occurs on this item No
Run in logged-on user’s security context (user policy option) No
Apply once and do not  reapply No

 

Registry item Hide Network
General
Action Replace
Properties
Hive       HKEY_CURRENT_USER
Key path   Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\NonEnum
Value name {F02C1A0D-BE21-4350-88B0-7367FC96EF3C}
Value type REG_DWORD
Value data 0x1 (1)
Common
Options
Stop processing items on this extension if an error occurs on this item No
Run in logged-on user’s security context (user policy option) No
Remove this item when it is no longer applied Yes
Description Hides Network Location from Navigation Pane https://www.carlwebster.com/removing-desktop-documents-downloads-music-pictures-and-videos-folders-from-navigation-pane/ and https://www.carlwebster.com/removing-the-network-location-from-the-navigation-pane/

 

Registry item Hide Libraries
General
Action Replace
Properties
Hive       HKEY_CURRENT_USER
Key path   Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\NonEnum
Value name {031E4825-7B94-4dc3-B131-E946B44C8DD5}
Value type REG_DWORD
Value data 0x1 (1)
Common
Options
Stop processing items on this extension if an error occurs on this item No
Run in logged-on user’s security context (user policy option) No
Remove this item when it is no longer applied Yes
Description Hides Libraries from Navigation Pane https://www.carlwebster.com/removing-desktop-documents-downloads-music-pictures-and-videos-folders-from-navigation-pane/ and https://www.carlwebster.com/removing-the-network-location-from-the-navigation-pane/

 

Registry item Hide Desktop
General
Action Replace
Properties
Hive       HKEY_CURRENT_USER
Key path   Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\NonEnum
Value name {B4BFCC3A-DB2C-424C-B029-7FE99A87C641}
Value type REG_DWORD
Value data 0x1 (1)
Common
Options
Stop processing items on this extension if an error occurs on this item No
Run in logged-on user’s security context (user policy option) No
Remove this item when it is no longer applied Yes
Description Hides Desktop from Navigation Pane https://www.carlwebster.com/removing-desktop-documents-downloads-music-pictures-and-videos-folders-from-navigation-pane/ and https://www.carlwebster.com/removing-the-network-location-from-the-navigation-pane/ and https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dd378457%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

 

Registry item Hide Downloads
General
Action Replace
Properties
Hive       HKEY_CURRENT_USER
Key path   Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\NonEnum
Value name {374DE290-123F-4565-9164-39C4925E467B}
Value type REG_DWORD
Value data 0x1 (1)
Common
Options
Stop processing items on this extension if an error occurs on this item No
Run in logged-on user’s security context (user policy option) No
Remove this item when it is no longer applied Yes
Description Hides Downloads from Navigation Pane https://www.carlwebster.com/removing-desktop-documents-downloads-music-pictures-and-videos-folders-from-navigation-pane/ and https://www.carlwebster.com/removing-the-network-location-from-the-navigation-pane/ and https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dd378457%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

 

Registry item Hide Music
General
Action Replace
Properties
Hive       HKEY_CURRENT_USER
Key path   Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\NonEnum
Value name {4BD8D571-6D19-48D3-BE97-422220080E43}
Value type REG_DWORD
Value data 0x1 (1)
Common
Options
Stop processing items on this extension if an error occurs on this item No
Run in logged-on user’s security context (user policy option) No
Remove this item when it is no longer applied Yes
Description Hides Music Folder from Navigation Pane https://www.carlwebster.com/removing-desktop-documents-downloads-music-pictures-and-videos-folders-from-navigation-pane/ and https://www.carlwebster.com/removing-the-network-location-from-the-navigation-pane/ and https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dd378457%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

 

Registry item Hide Pictures
General
Action Replace
Properties
Hive       HKEY_CURRENT_USER
Key path   Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\NonEnum
Value name {33E28130-4E1E-4676-835A-98395C3BC3BB}
Value type REG_DWORD
Value data 0x1 (1)
Common
Options
Stop processing items on this extension if an error occurs on this item No
Run in logged-on user’s security context (user policy option) No
Remove this item when it is no longer applied Yes
Description Hides Pictures Folder from Navigation Pane https://www.carlwebster.com/removing-desktop-documents-downloads-music-pictures-and-videos-folders-from-navigation-pane/ and https://www.carlwebster.com/removing-the-network-location-from-the-navigation-pane/ and https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dd378457%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

 

Registry item Hide Videos
General
Action Replace
Properties
Hive       HKEY_CURRENT_USER
Key path   Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\NonEnum
Value name {18989B1D-99B5-455B-841C-AB7C74E4DDFC}
Value type REG_DWORD
Value data 0x1 (1)
Common
Options
Stop processing items on this extension if an error occurs on this item No
Run in logged-on user’s security context (user policy option) No
Remove this item when it is no longer applied Yes
Description Hides Videos Folder from Navigation Pane https://www.carlwebster.com/removing-desktop-documents-downloads-music-pictures-and-videos-folders-from-navigation-pane/ and https://www.carlwebster.com/removing-the-network-location-from-the-navigation-pane/ and https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dd378457%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

 

Registry item Hide Favorites
General
Action Replace
Properties
Hive       HKEY_CURRENT_USER
Key path   Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\NonEnum
Value name {1777F761-68AD-4D8A-87BD-30B759FA33DD}
Value type REG_DWORD
Value data 0x1 (1)
Common
Options
Stop processing items on this extension if an error occurs on this item No
Run in logged-on user’s security context (user policy option) No
Remove this item when it is no longer applied Yes
Description Hides Favorites Location from Navigation Pane https://www.carlwebster.com/removing-desktop-documents-downloads-music-pictures-and-videos-folders-from-navigation-pane/ and https://www.carlwebster.com/removing-the-network-location-from-the-navigation-pane/ and https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dd378457%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

 

Registry item Hide Music Library
General
Action Replace
Properties
Hive       HKEY_CURRENT_USER
Key path   Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\NonEnum
Value name {2112AB0A-C86A-4FFE-A368-0DE96E47012E}
Value type REG_DWORD
Value data 0x1 (1)
Common
Options
Stop processing items on this extension if an error occurs on this item No
Run in logged-on user’s security context (user policy option) No
Remove this item when it is no longer applied Yes
Description Hides Music Library Location from Navigation Pane https://www.carlwebster.com/removing-desktop-documents-downloads-music-pictures-and-videos-folders-from-navigation-pane/ and https://www.carlwebster.com/removing-the-network-location-from-the-navigation-pane/ and https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dd378457%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

 

Registry item Hide Pictures Library
General
Action Replace
Properties
Hive       HKEY_CURRENT_USER
Key path   Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\NonEnum
Value name {A990AE9F-A03B-4E80-94BC-9912D7504104}
Value type REG_DWORD
Value data 0x1 (1)
Common
Options
Stop processing items on this extension if an error occurs on this item No
Run in logged-on user’s security context (user policy option) No
Remove this item when it is no longer applied Yes
Description Hides Pictures Library Location from Navigation Pane https://www.carlwebster.com/removing-desktop-documents-downloads-music-pictures-and-videos-folders-from-navigation-pane/ and https://www.carlwebster.com/removing-the-network-location-from-the-navigation-pane/ and https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dd378457%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

 

Registry item Hide Videos Library
General
Action Replace
Properties
Hive       HKEY_CURRENT_USER
Key path   Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\NonEnum
Value name {491E922F-5643-4AF4-A7EB-4E7A138D8174}
Value type REG_DWORD
Value data 0x1 (1)
Common
Options
Stop processing items on this extension if an error occurs on this item No
Run in logged-on user’s security context (user policy option) No
Remove this item when it is no longer applied Yes
Description Hides Videos library Location from Navigation Pane https://www.carlwebster.com/removing-desktop-documents-downloads-music-pictures-and-videos-folders-from-navigation-pane/ and https://www.carlwebster.com/removing-the-network-location-from-the-navigation-pane/ and https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dd378457%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

 

Registry item Hide Documents
General
Action Replace
Properties
Hive       HKEY_CURRENT_USER
Key path   Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\NonEnum
Value name {FDD39AD0-238F-46AF-ADB4-6C85480369C7}
Value type REG_DWORD
Value data 0x1 (1)
Common
Options
Stop processing items on this extension if an error occurs on this item No
Run in logged-on user’s security context (user policy option) No
Remove this item when it is no longer applied Yes
Description Hides Documents Folder from Navigation Pane https://www.carlwebster.com/removing-desktop-documents-downloads-music-pictures-and-videos-folders-from-navigation-pane/ and https://www.carlwebster.com/removing-the-network-location-from-the-navigation-pane/ and https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dd378457%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

 

Registry item Hide Documents Library
General
Action Replace
Properties
Hive       HKEY_CURRENT_USER
Key path   Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\NonEnum
Value name {7B0DB17D-9CD2-4A93-9733-46CC89022E7C}
Value type REG_DWORD
Value data 0x1 (1)
Common
Options
Stop processing items on this extension if an error occurs on this item No
Run in logged-on user’s security context (user policy option) No
Remove this item when it is no longer applied Yes
Description Hides Documents Library Folder from Navigation Pane https://www.carlwebster.com/removing-desktop-documents-downloads-music-pictures-and-videos-folders-from-navigation-pane/ and https://www.carlwebster.com/removing-the-network-location-from-the-navigation-pane/ and https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dd378457%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

 

Registry item Hide Music 2
General
Action Replace
Properties
Hive       HKEY_CURRENT_USER
Key path   Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\NonEnum
Value name {1CF1260C-4DD0-4ebb-811F-33C572699FDE}
Value type REG_DWORD
Value data 0x1 (1)
Common
Options
Stop processing items on this extension if an error occurs on this item No
Run in logged-on user’s security context (user policy option) No
Remove this item when it is no longer applied Yes
Description Hides Music Folder from Navigation Pane https://www.carlwebster.com/removing-desktop-documents-downloads-music-pictures-and-videos-folders-from-navigation-pane/ and https://www.carlwebster.com/removing-the-network-location-from-the-navigation-pane/ and https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dd378457%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

 

Registry item Hide Pictures 2
General
Action Replace
Properties
Hive       HKEY_CURRENT_USER
Key path   Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\NonEnum
Value name {3ADD1653-EB32-4cb0-BBD7-DFA0ABB5ACCA}
Value type REG_DWORD
Value data 0x1 (1)
Common
Options
Stop processing items on this extension if an error occurs on this item No
Run in logged-on user’s security context (user policy option) No
Remove this item when it is no longer applied Yes
Description Hides Music Folder from Navigation Pane https://www.carlwebster.com/removing-desktop-documents-downloads-music-pictures-and-videos-folders-from-navigation-pane/ and https://www.carlwebster.com/removing-the-network-location-from-the-navigation-pane/ and https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dd378457%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

 

Registry item Hide Videos 2
General
Action Replace
Properties
Hive       HKEY_CURRENT_USER
Key path   Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\NonEnum
Value name {A0953C92-50DC-43bf-BE83-3742FED03C9C}
Value type REG_DWORD
Value data 0x1 (1)
Common
Options
Stop processing items on this extension if an error occurs on this item No
Run in logged-on user’s security context (user policy option) No
Remove this item when it is no longer applied Yes
Description Hides Music Folder from Navigation Pane https://www.carlwebster.com/removing-desktop-documents-downloads-music-pictures-and-videos-folders-from-navigation-pane/ and https://www.carlwebster.com/removing-the-network-location-from-the-navigation-pane/ and https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dd378457%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

 

Registry item Hide Documents 2
General
Action Replace
Properties
Hive       HKEY_CURRENT_USER
Key path   Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\NonEnum
Value name {A8CDFF1C-4878-43be-B5FD-F8091C1C60D0}
Value type REG_DWORD
Value data 0x1 (1)
Common
Options
Stop processing items on this extension if an error occurs on this item No
Run in logged-on user’s security context (user policy option) No
Remove this item when it is no longer applied Yes
Description Hides Music Folder from Navigation Pane https://www.carlwebster.com/removing-desktop-documents-downloads-music-pictures-and-videos-folders-from-navigation-pane/ and https://www.carlwebster.com/removing-the-network-location-from-the-navigation-pane/ and https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dd378457%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

 

Thanks

Webster

18 Comments

  1. Jack

    wonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnderful! Thank you soooooooooo much!!

    For months, I have tried to find the .reg or info to hide the Contacts folder in the navig.pane on my win7 32bit.
    I do not use the silly thing.
    I could not find it and have not found this info on the web the last several months I have tried.

    Any help is just so deeeeeeply appreciated!
    God Bless!

  2. pi

    This works as described. Yet I would actually like to get rid of those folders, such as:
    C:\Users\$USER\Music
    C:\Users\$USER\Pictures
    C:\Users\$USER\Videos

    Any idea? Once deleted, they quickly get automatically recreated.

    pi

    • Carl Webster

      I updated the article with the link to the MSDN article on Known Default Folders in Windows.

      Webster

  3. Rob J

    and if you want to also block for Win 10/2016 there are some new GUIDs to NonEnum

    Music – {3dfdf296-dbec-4fb4-81d1-6a3438bcf4de}
    Downloads – {088e3905-0323-4b02-9826-5d99428e115f}
    Pictures – {24ad3ad4-a569-4530-98e1-ab02f9417aa8}
    Videos – {f86fa3ab-70d2-4fc7-9c99-fcbf05467f3a}
    Documents – {d3162b92-9365-467a-956b-92703aca08af}

    Desktop GUID is unchanged…

  4. Bob

    Carl,
    Good stuff!
    Quick question. We have these entries in place now and working great, but wanted to bring back one of them, the Favorites. Even after disabling those entries tied to Favorites, they don’t come back. Any ideas?

    • Carl Webster

      Sorry, I don’t. I haven’t had to deal with this issue in a long time and don’t have anything in my lab I can use to test this scenario out with right now.

      Webster

  5. Roni Nuriel

    Hello,

    thanks for great post,
    after I hid the desktop folder, users still see the desktop folder from save as….( saving a doc from word)
    any idea how to hide it from there also?

    • Carl Webster

      I sent your query on to fellow CTP James Rankin. Here is what he replied to you directly.

      Please try this.

      First open Registry Editor and browse to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{679f85cb-0220-4080-b29b-5540cc05aab6}

      Get the Permissions on this key, and change the owner to Administrators. Cascade it to all subfolders.

      Now change the permissions for Administrators to Full Control on the key.

      Now go to the key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{679f85cb-0220-4080-b29b-5540cc05aab6}\ShellFolder. There is an Attributes value in here, change it to a hexadecimal value of a0700000

      Now create a file called import.reg file with the following content:

      Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

      ; Remove Desktop From This PC
      [-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MyComputer\NameSpace\{B4BFCC3A-DB2C-424C-B029-7FE99A87C641}]
      [-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MyComputer\NameSpace\{B4BFCC3A-DB2C-424C-B029-7FE99A87C641}]

      Once you have saved the file locally, right-click it and choose Merge

      Once this is done, restart your application and see if the Save AS dialog has changed?

      Thanks, James and Webster

      • FU

        Hi Carl. Could you tell me the values/method for other folders (doc, download, music, pic, vid) in Win11’s Save as dialog? I want to get rid of them too.

        • Carl Webster

          Sorry, I don’t have a clue. There should be a Microsoft document showing them. That is what I used when I wrote that article.

  6. Jerry

    I followed the instructions exactly and still get the server favorites, desktop etc icons. This is on a 2012R2 server with RDS installed. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

    Thanks,
    Jerry

  7. Hello Carl,

    I had a need to hide these folders as well and I’m doing it with a Windows 2012 R2 image. Carl, I hope you recall where you got your {CLSID} values, because they work in W2012R2 and not all match the {CLSID} values that are listed in the MSDN article Krystian posted. Only Desktop and Downloads are the same.

    I was able to follow Krystian’s example and use GPO preferences to hide these items using a GPO preferences setting.

    Thanks,
    Alain

  8. These registry entries worked for me per user on Win7/Windows 2008 R2.
    Set the values in GPO Preferences:

    [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\NonEnum]

    for Network:
    “{F02C1A0D-BE21-4350-88B0-7367FC96EF3C}”=dword:00000001

    for Libraries:
    “{031E4825-7B94-4dc3-B131-E946B44C8DD5}”=dword:00000001

    And MSDN article with Known Folder IDs:
    http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dd378457%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

    Best regards,
    Krystian

Comments are closed