How in the Tech

Hiding Homegroup, Favorites, and Network from Windows 7 Explorer view

By Adam Myers ⋅ July 22, 2010 ⋅ Tags: Customization, Windows 7

I’ve written before about the process involved in hiding the Libraries item in Windows Explorer under Windows 7. I abhor clutter and after using 7 for a sizable amount of time I realized that I actually don’t use many of the other navigation shortcuts in Explorer – such as Home Group, Favorites, or Network. Basically, I only use the Computer link and I suspect I’m not alone. Hiding the Libraries link involves deleting a particular registry entry so it’s logical that removal of other keys will have the same effect for other items we wish to have disappear.

Launch regedit.exe from the Windows 7 search box.

Traverse the left-hand navigation panel to each of the keys for the item you wish to remove:

• Homegroup: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}\ShellFolder
• Favorites: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{323CA680-C24D-4099-B94D-446DD2D7249E}\ShellFolder
• Network: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{F02C1A0D-BE21-4350-88B0-7367FC96EF3C}\ShellFolder

Now it begins to differ from traditional registry edits – you do not have the proper permissions to modify the contents of the ShellFolder key. Right-click on ShellFolder and select Permissions…

Select your username and check the box next to Full Control. You’ll need to repeat this process for every ShellFolder you are editing above.

For each key, double-click on the Attributes name to modify the value.

To hide:

• Homegroup: change b084010c to b094010c
• Favorites: change a0900100 to a9400100
• Network: change b0040064 to b0940064

Finally, reboot to apply the changes.

To revert the customization, just change the Attributes values back to the originals from above.