How to Hide Specific Pages in the Windows Settings App

Don’t desire folks tweaking your settings on Windows? This is how to cover whole pages within the Settings window.

Windows permits you to limit entry to sure components of the working system. You may even hide pages within the Settings app to cease different customers from making undesirable adjustments.

As such, if you wish to cease folks from poking their noses inside your system’s settings, here is how to cover choose pages in Windows.

How to Hide Windows Settings Pages within the Group Policy Editor

The Group Policy Editor is an administration software that allows you to management the Windows working surroundings for consumer and laptop accounts. It’s often not out there on Windows Residence, however there’s a technique to entry the Group Policy Editor in Windows Residence.

1. Open Windows Search and sort gpedit to seek out the Group Policy Editor. You needn’t choose Run as Administrator.
2. Within the Native Group Policy Editor pane, navigate to Laptop Configuration > Administrative Templates > Management Panel.

   

3. Within the right-hand pane, double-click on Settings Web page Visibility.
4. Change the setting from Not Configured to Enabled.
5. Within the Choices part of the pane, kind hide: adopted by the title of the settings web page, utilizing the URI label. For instance, hide:signinoptions.

   

6. You needn’t kind hide: for each web page you need to hide. As an alternative, you possibly can mix a number of into one command. e.g. hide:storagesense;signinoptions.
7. If it’s good to hide many of the settings pages, it may be simpler to make use of the showonly: command. This is an instance, showonly:network-wifi;language.
8. After you may have added all of the pages you need to hide, click on the Apply button.

If the Settings app was open if you utilized these steps, it’s good to shut it and reopen it to see the adjustments. You may’t use this technique to cover whole sections of Settings, corresponding to Accounts. You may solely hide particular person pages.

To disclose the Settings pages, change the Settings Web page Visibility setting again to Not Configured.

How to Hide Windows Settings Pages by way of the Registry Editor

Another path to hiding settings pages is thru the Registry Editor:

1. Open Windows Search and sort regedit and click on on Registry Editor.
2. Within the Registry Editor, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionPoliciesExplorer.

   

3. Proper-click on the Explorer key and choose New > String Worth. Title the brand new worth SettingsPageVisibility and click on Okay.
4. Double-click the brand new SettingsPageVisibility key, and within the Worth Knowledge discipline, kind hide: adopted by the web page you need to hide. For instance, hide:windowsupdate.

   

5. You may mix pages right into a single string to cover multiple, for instance, hide:windowsupdate;network-wifi.
6. If you wish to hide most settings, you need to use showonly: command as an alternative. For instance, showonly:network-wifi;windowsupdate.
7. When you may have added all of the settings you need to hide, click on OK and shut the Registry Editor.

Shut and reopen the Settings app to see the adjustments you simply made. As with the earlier technique, you can’t hide the primary settings classes, solely the person pages.

To revert the adjustments to the Settings app, delete the brand new SettingsPageVisibility key you created. You will notice a warning that deleting registry entries can have an effect on how your laptop works, however it isn’t an issue on this case. If you’re uncertain, be taught more about how to edit the Registry.

The place to Discover System Names for Windows Settings

To cover settings pages utilizing both of the strategies detailed above, it’s good to understand how the system refers to these pages. Sadly, what to name pages is not at all times apparent. For instance, the URI for the “Windows Update” web page is windowsupdate, however the URI for “Set Up a Kiosk” is assignedaccess.

Fortuitously, yow will discover an entire checklist of settings web page reference names on Microsoft Docs. When this checklist of URIs, you solely want the second part, after ms-settings.

Hiding Particular Settings Pages in Windows

The flexibility to cover particular settings pages in Windows has more functions than you may suppose. Essentially the most helpful is stopping different laptop customers from making adjustments that will have an effect on how properly Windows operates. If a web page shouldn’t be seen in Settings, altering these settings turns into rather more troublesome for the common Windows consumer.