Tip 42: How to hide the Active Directory folder under My Network Places in Windows 2000

You can hide the Active Directory folder under My Network Places so that users won’t be able to see or browse the folder but will still be able to search on that directory. To hide the Active Directory folder using Registry Editor, perform the following:

  1. Start a registry editor (e.g. regedit.exe).
  2. Navigate to the subkey: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Directory UI If this subkey doesn’t exist, create it and add the following valuename to it:
     
    Hive: HKEY_CURRENT_USER
    Key: Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Directory UI
    Name: HideDirectoryFolder
    Type: REG_DWORD
    Value: 1 enable (ie. this enables the HideDirectoryFolder, thus nothing is displayed!)
  3. Close the registry editor.
  4. Log off and log on again for the change to take effect.
Alternatively, and possibly less involved, you can also configure this using the policy setting method, through a GPO setting:
  1. Open Group Policy with the Group Policy Editor (GPE).
  2. Navigate to User Configurations, Administrative Templates, Desktop, Active Directory.
  3. Double-click "Hide Active Directory folder".
  4. Select the Policy tab.
  5. Click Enabled, and click OK.
  6. Close the policy.