In this article I am going to show you how to create and deploy a group policy in active directory which will hide the local drives (such as C: drive) on the machine.
How to Hide Local Drive Using Group Policies in Active Directory
- Click start and type in Group Policy Management and hit enter. The group policy console needs to be installed.
- Right click on the OU where you want to create the group policy and click new. Give the group policy a name and hit ok.
- Right click on the group policy you just created and select edit.
- Browse to User Configuration > Administrative Template > Windows Components > File Explorer and double click on Hide these specified drives in My Computer
- In the drop down box select the option you wish to use then click ok to close the window.
- Check that the group policy is linked to the OU where the user accounts sit. Check the permissions for who the GPO will apply to, You can create an AD group if you only want to apply this policy to certain users.
- Now close down the group policy management application
Testing The Group Policy
Now we have created the GPO we need to test. To test if the settings apply correctly do the following.
Wait for the GPO to replicate between domain controllers (In my experience 30 minutes is usually enough time)
- Log on to a client machine
- open file explorer and check if the required drives are now hidden
- If the drives are not hidden, open cmd and type in gpresult /r this will show all group policies, if the group policy is not listed make sure the GPO is linked to the same OU where the user account site, Also check the security on the GPO. If all looks ok you might need to wait some more time for the group policy to replicate
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