Enable or Disable System Properties Access from My Computer

Would you like to exercise greater control over your computer operating system? Would you like to limit the powers of other users on your machine? If you answered yes to both these questions, you might want to disable access to System Properties.

There are two ways to do this if you are on a Windows XP computer. You can disable access to System Properties via My Computer – Current User or through the Local Machine. Both ways will involve tweaking the registry so you should create a backup of your present registry settings first. Should any issues arise, you can always reinstall your registry using the backup file.

Disabling access to System Properties via My Computer is for the current user. Instructions for doing this are listed below.

Disable Access to System Properties via My Computer

  1. Click Start and go to Run. Enter regedit. This will bring up your registry editor.
  2. Look for the HKEY_CURRENT_USER folder on the left side of the registry editor. Expand this folder by clicking on the little cross on the left.
  3. Look for the Software folder. Expand this folder.
  4. Now go to Microsoft. Expand the folder and go to Windows.
  5. Once you’ve found Windows, expand the folder and go to CurrentVersion. Expand CurrentVersion.
  6. Look for Policies. Expand this folder and locate the Explorer folder.
  7. Now look at the right hand pane of the registry editor. Check to see if you have NoPropertiesMyComputer. If you do, jump to step eight. If you don’t, follow the instructions below on how to create NoPropertiesMyComputer.
    • Right click on the right hand pane of the registry editor.
    • Select New and then select DWORD.
    • Rename the new DWORD NoPropertiesMyComputer. You can also right click on the new DWORD value that comes up and select Rename.
  8. Double click on NoPropertiesMyComputer. A new box will come up.
  9. Enter 0 if you want to display Properties. If you would rather hide Properties, enter 1.
  10. Exit the registry and reboot.

Please bear in mind that the instructions above are for the current user. If you want to disable access to System Properties for all users, you can use the registry tweak below.

Disable Access to System Properties via My Computer – Local Machine

  1. Click Start and go to Run. Enter regedit. This will bring up your registry editor.
  2. Locate HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE on the left side of your registry editor. Expand the folder by clicking on the cross on the left.
  3. Go to the Software folder. Expand the Software folder and go to Microsoft.
  4. Once you’ve expanded Microsoft, go to the Windows folder and expand.
  5. This will take you to CurrentVersion. Expand CurrentVersion.
  6. Go to Policies. Expand this folder. Now go to Explorer.
  7. Look at the right hand side of the registry editor. Check and see if you can find NoPropertiesMyComputer there. If you can, go on to step eight. If you can’t, create the value using the steps below.
    • Right click on the white part of the right side pane of the registry editor.
    • Select New and then select DWORD.
    • Rename the new DWORD NoPropertiesMyComputer. You may also right click on the new DWORD value and select Rename.
  8. Double click on NoPropertiesMyComputer. A new box will pop up.
  9. Enter 1 if you wish to hide Properties from all users. Enter 0 if you would like to show Properties to all users.
  10. Exit registry and reboot.