Tip 75: How to let users Search, but not Browse, Active Directory (AD)?

You can use either a policy setting or the registry to configure AD for browsing.

To use the policy setting method, perform the following steps:

  1. Open Group Policy with the Group Policy Editor (GPE).
  2. Navigate to User Configurations, Administrative Templates, Desktop, AD.
  3. Double-click "Hide Active Directory folder."
  4. Select the Policy tab.
  5. Click Enabled, and click OK.
  6. Close the policy.
To use the registry to complete the same task, perform the following steps:
  1. Start the registry editor (e.g., regedit.exe).
  2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft.
  3. If the Windows key doesn’t exist, click Edit, New, Key to create the key.
  4. Look for "Directory UI" under the Windows key, and if it doesn’t exist, click Edit, New, Key to create the key.
  5. From the Edit menu, select New-DWORD Value.
  6. Enter a name of HideDirectoryFolder, and press Enter.
  7. Double-click the new value, set it to 1, and click OK.
  8. Exit the registry editor.