Hide "my documents", documents shortcut and windows folder with GPO/register

Question

Hello, community,

in my company, we provide storage for our customers. Each customer can access their own folder via Citrix.

The problem is when I map a folder to their AD account/group, it automatically creates a folder "MyDocuments" and links it to the "Documents" shortcut. I do not want any folder structure in File Browser.

What is also weird is that some users have automatically created a " Windows " folder... which needs to be gone.

Below is the inside of one of the customer folders. The Documents shortcut is linked to a folder " My documents", which further contains videos, music, and images. I am not able to locate the " my documents " folder since it should be right inside this folder.

Answer 1

Hi. Thank you for your question and reaching out. I’d be more than happy to help you with your query

You can use Group Policy to hide the "My Documents" folder, Documents shortcut, and Windows folder by configuring the "Hide these specified drives in My Computer" and "Prevent access to drives from My Computer" policies in the Group Policy Editor.

To do this, follow these steps:

Open the Group Policy Editor by typing "gpedit.msc" in the Run dialog box (press Windows key + R to open the Run dialog box).

In the Group Policy Editor, navigate to the following location: "User Configuration" -> "Administrative Templates" -> "Windows Components" -> "File Explorer".

Double-click on the "Hide these specified drives in My Computer" policy.

In the policy properties window, select the "Enabled" option, and then check the box next to "Restrict A, B, C, and D drives only". Click "OK" to save the changes.

Next, double-click on the "Prevent access to drives from My Computer" policy.

In the policy properties window, select the "Enabled" option, and then check the boxes next to "Restrict C drive only" and "Hide these specified drives in My Computer". Click "OK" to save the changes.

To hide the Documents shortcut, navigate to the following location in the Group Policy Editor: "User Configuration" -> "Administrative Templates" -> "Start Menu and Taskbar".

Double-click on the "Remove Documents icon from Start Menu" policy.

In the policy properties window, select the "Enabled" option. Click "OK" to save the changes.

To hide the Windows folder, you can use the "Hide these specified folders on the server" policy.

Navigate to the following location in the Group Policy Editor: "User Configuration" -> "Policies" -> "Administrative Templates" -> "Windows Components" -> "File Explorer".

Double-click on the "Hide these specified folders on the server" policy.

In the policy properties window, select the "Enabled" option, and then add "Windows" to the list of folders to be hidden. Click "OK" to save the changes.

After making these changes, the "My Documents" folder, Documents shortcut, and Windows folder should be hidden from users. Note that these changes will only apply to the user accounts that are subject to the group policy settings.

If the reply was helpful, please don’t forget to upvote or accept as answer, thank you.

Answer 2

Could you elaborate more if the "Hide these specified folders on the server" policy is existent on all windows servers because hide these specified drives on MyComputer is the only option? But that I cannot use.