How to hide the network icon in Windows 2008 and Windows Vista

If like me you have been frustrated at some of the items that are missing for the GPO set for Windows Vista and Windows 2008 then you are not alone. One of the biggest issues is that there is no way in the GPO templates that ship with Vista/Windows 2008 to hide the network icon in Windows explorer. This means that all the computers on your network are visible to all users who have access to Windows Explorer or the Start Menu.

In order to disable the network icon you need to change/create the following registry key:

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\NonEnum\{F02C1A0D-BE21-4350-88B0-7367FC96EF3C}

DWORD: Value 1

Alternatively if you want roll this out using a GPO then just cut and paste the following into a .ADM file and then import using the GPMC.

*****************************************************

CLASS MACHINE

CATEGORY !!Custom

CATEGORY !!ExplorerExtras

        POLICY !!HideNetworkInExplorer
 KEYNAME "SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\NonEnum"
            EXPLAIN !!HideNetworkInExplorer_Help
                VALUENAME "{F02C1A0D-BE21-4350-88B0-7367FC96EF3C}"
                    VALUEON NUMERIC 1
                    VALUEOFF NUMERIC 0
        END POLICY

END CATEGORY

END CATEGORY

[strings]
Custom="Custom Policies"
ExplorerExtras="Windows Explorer Extra's"
HideNetworkInExplorer="Hide Network Icon in Explorer 2008/Vista"
HideNetworkInExplorer_Help="Enable this one to hide the icon, disable or unconfigure to show it..."

*****************************************************

I have also tried this with HKCU but could not get it to work so you will need to reboot any Widnows Vista/Windows 2008 machine that this is applied to.

Thanks to Dennis Van Dam for the original post on Brian Madden Forums: http://www.brianmadden.com/forums/t/30217.aspx

Cheers

Paul