How to Hide Control Panel Applets in Windows 10

Control Panel and Settings are two apps you can use in Windows 10 to change most of the settings available in the OS. Settings is a Universal app bundled with Windows 10. It is created to replace the classic Control Panel. As of this writing, the classic Control Panel still comes with a number of options and tools which are not available in Settings. In this article, we will see how to hide specific applets of the Control Panel in Windows 10.

The classic Control Panel has a familiar user interface which many users prefer over the Settings app. You can use Administrative tools, manage user accounts on the computer in a flexible way, maintain data backups, change the functionality of hardware and many other things. You can pin Control Panel applets to the taskbar to access frequently used settings faster.

There are two ways to hide certain applets in the Control Panel. You can use a Registry tweak or the Local Group Policy Editor app. Let's review them.

First of all, you need to note the names of the applets you want to hide from the Control Panel. Open the Control Panel and switch its view to either "Large icons" or "Small icons" as shown below.

Note the applet names and do the following.

How to hide certain Control Panel applets

Step 1: Open the Registry editor.

Step 2: Go to the following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

Step 3: On the right, create a new 32-bit DWORD value named DisallowCpl and set it to 1.

Step 4: Go to the key

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\DisallowCpl

Step 5: With the DisallowCpl key selected, right click in the right pane of Registry Editor and create a new string (REG_SZ) value and name it as 1.

Step 6: Set its value data to the name of the applet you want to hide.

Step 7: Repeat the steps 5-6 for all the applets you need to hide. Every time you add a new value, increase the number you use as the value's name, e.g. 1, 2, 3, .. , N.

You are done!

Now, close Registry Editor and the Control Panel. Open the Control Panel again. The applets you specified in the Registry will disappear.

Before:

After:

Notes:

• See how to go to a Registry key with one click.
• Even if you are running 64-bit Windows you must still create a 32-bit DWORD value "DisallowCpl".
• If you don't have the above-mentioned Registry paths, then create the missing keys manually.

Now, let's see how to apply the same restriction with the Local Group Policy Editor app. If you are running Windows 10 Pro, Enterprise, or Education edition, then the app is available in the OS.

Hide Control Panel applets with Local Group Policy

1. Press Win + R keys together on your keyboard and type:

   gpedit.msc

   Press Enter.

2. Group Policy Editor will open. Go to User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Control Panel.
3. Double-click on the policy option Hide specified Control Panel items.
4. Enable the policy and click on the "Show" button.
5. Fill in the table of applet names that should be hidden.

That's it.