Some items can be removed using attrib +h Documents and
settings\YourUser\Start Menu\Programs\Accessories\Imaging.lnk" and others
have to be done from "Documents and Settings\All Users" Do you know of any
documents that explain why this happens, I want to understard and explain
this to the people above who have requested users machines locked down.
Nothing comes to my mind, but i'll explain how it goes:
Windows has three types of profiles.
* A default profile which gets replicated to each new user. When you
create a new user and log on to it, you see that user.
* A common profile, for all users. If you set something here, all users
see it as added.
* A personal profile. Only you see it.
Your start menu is a transparent version of all three. (Actually, two, but
i don't want to ger too deep).
Your menu is created from "ALL USERS", then your personal profile is
merged in. Personal settings take precedence, so if both you andthe common
user have the same shortcut name but you have a green icon, you will see the
green icon. Simply put, your gets merged later, after the common one.
Because if this layered architecture, if you right-click the green icon,
you right click your version (YourUser\Start Menu\MyIcon). Should you delete
it, it does not die from the menu. Instead, the default red icon will be
displayed, because of the underlying layer. Should you delete that too, the
menu disappears.
Imagine both trees as being drawn on transparent paper, the common one is
on the bottom, the personal on the top.
You hid some of the items and it worked, those who refused to delete were
common to all users and they appereared from the below layer.
To make sure you hide command prompt from all users, you need to delete:
* All users (so all layers below will be hid)
* Each personal profile (so that each user will not see it) - if only
hiding from you, in YourProfile.
If you want new users to not recreate the issue, also hide it from
DefaultUser. Default User is a template Windows uses to initialize a new
user when he first logs on, otherwise he'd get an empty desktop and an empty
Start Menu ...
The "All Users" layer is provided so that an application can install a
link for all users to see without copying a link to each user's menu, thus
bypassing permission problems. Also, by being dynamically blended, one is
spared the headache of creating new users. Those new users see the common
items without having to be copied each item.
I got problems hiding some thing in Control Panel now, I will create a new
post for this.
You need to add each item in a separate string value under
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Don't Load
Value name: odbccp32.cpl
Value type: string (REG_SZ)
Value data: "no"
I have seen it done by other software as "1" or "0" instead of "no".
Miscrosoft's tools store "no", so I guess that's it ...
For earlier versions of Windows, this is done in Control.ini.
