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Removing Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, and Videos Folders from Navigation Pane
October 30, 2015
Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops, XenApp/XenDesktop 7.0 - 7.7
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 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} /fMy 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 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
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18 Responses to “Removing Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, and Videos Folders from Navigation Pane”
July 4, 2023 at 11:30 am
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!
November 24, 2019 at 9:25 am
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
December 2, 2019 at 11:38 am
I updated the article with the link to the MSDN article on Known Default Folders in Windows.
Webster
February 20, 2019 at 1:21 pm
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…
October 22, 2018 at 7:54 pm
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?
October 23, 2018 at 2:49 pm
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
June 29, 2018 at 8:25 am
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?
July 4, 2018 at 11:28 am
I sent your query on to fellow CTP James Rankin. Here is what he replied to you directly.
Thanks, James and Webster
July 2, 2023 at 9:39 am
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.
July 4, 2023 at 11:12 am
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.
April 7, 2017 at 12:37 pm
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
February 11, 2016 at 2:35 pm
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
February 11, 2016 at 2:49 pm
I did a search on the desktop GUID restricted to site:msdn.microsoft.com and these were the first two hits.
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dd378457(v=vs.85).aspx
https://msdn.microsoft.com/library/bb882665(v=vs.100).aspx
Webster
February 24, 2017 at 8:01 am
Alain,
Can you share with me exactly how you went about to hide the Desktop, Documents, etc?
February 24, 2017 at 9:46 am
Alex,
I would be happy to. Send me an email at alainassaf [AT] OUTLOOK [DOT] COM and I’ll send you what I did.
Take care,
Alain
November 24, 2015 at 6:24 am
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
November 11, 2015 at 8:07 am
Hi Webster
I also did a bit of work around the various Libraries and found you could manipulate this per-user with GPOs – not sure if these are still applicable on Server 2012 R2 and Windows 8.x though
http://appsensebigot.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/customizing-visible-libraries-in.html
I will revisit this from a Windows 8/Server 2012 perspective as soon as I can.
Cheers,
JR
October 31, 2015 at 10:03 am
Aloha Carl,
Great post m8, I always use the following tool: WENPCFG, http://www.s-inn.de/blog/post/remove-Libraries-Favorites-in-windows-explorer-navigation-pane.aspx
Regards,
Timco Hazelaar
EUC Computer Architect