disable/hide program in start menu (W2K)

[dropdict]

Hi there,

Is it possible to completely remove/hide/disable the "Programs" folder in the start menu. My machines are setup as kiosks and I can disable everything but that. I could create my own shell but not too interested.

Thanks in advanced

[gavsta]

Are you simply running one application when the user logs in? or are you trying to restrict what applications users have available to them once logged in??

If you simply want to use IE as the only application set this to be your shell, the users will then have no access to anything but IE.

This can be applied to some applications but not all.

Gav.

[Mosaic1]

See if this works for you.
I got this idea from the resolution to an empty shell folder problem at another forum. Let's apply it to the Programs folder.
Go to:
HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Cur rentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders
Create a new String Value. Name it Programs.
Modify the value to a path to some folder. A fake folder which will be empty.

For instance:
C:\windows\not

Don't worry about creaing the folder. It will be created when Explorer is restarted. The Programs menu will be empty the next time Widows explorer starts.

However, the real programs menu will now appear above the separation on the Start Menu. To resolve this open
C:\WINDOWS\Start Menu

Right click on the programs folder and choose properties. Set it to hidden.

Restart for all changes to take effect. You will have an empty progams menu. To get it back, undo all changes made.

[Mosaic1]

Or you can use a utility like Resource hacker to modify Explorer.exe. And replace the original with the newly tweaked file.
This is less work though. It works. I tried it on my Win98 SE machine. The path to user shell folders may be different for you. I just noticed you run Win2k