There are times when people have only one computer and they have to share it with family members or friends. Many times the people you share the computer with are not tech savvies, and you may not want them to be saving or deleting files in Windows “C” drive or in another hard drive that may have data that you are not open to share with everyone. What you can do in this case is use the Local Computer Policy in Windows to enable a setting to remove the icons representing selected hard drives from My Computer and from the Windows Explorer, plus the drive letters from the selected hard drivers will not appear in the standards Open dialog box. And the process is not that complicated.
How to hide specified hard drives on Windows
Use the + R keyboard shortcut to bring the Run command, type mmc, and click OK to open the Windows Console.
From the Console’s File menu, click Add/Remove Snap-ins, select the Group Policy Object Editor on the left from the available snap-ins and click Add, then click Finish and OK.
On the left pane, expand the Local Computer Policy, User Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, and selectWindows Explorer.
From the list of settings in the right side, double-click “Hide these specified drives in My Computer”.
Then click Enabled, and in the Options section, pick from one of the combinations available to hide the hard drives that you don’t want everybody to see. If you want to know more about this setting, you can read an extensive explanation in the Help section.
Once you have chosen what drives to hide, click Apply and then OK. Now, it is not going to be that easy for regular users to access certain locations.
In the case you want to revert to the old settings, go back to the Hide these specified drives in My Computers settings and choose the option Do not restrict drivers, click Apply. Then select the option Not Configured and one more time click Apply and OK to finish. Do you have any Windows Tips? Tell us in the comments below. All content on this site is provided with no warranties, express or implied. Use any information at your own risk. Always backup of your device and files before making any changes. Privacy policy info.
