Classic Shell: Forum

I'm looking at deploying Classic Start Menu in an enterprise as part of our migration to Win 7. I saw in another topic that one can "lock" settings down by exporting them from the HKCU hive in the registry and putting them into the HKLM hive, but I'd like to also have some per-user settings (for instance, removing the Control Panel from the menu for non-admin users). Would I be able to write these directly into HKCU and have them override the settings in HKLM? If not, is there a way to lock out the settings dialog and still be able to write settings into HKCU?

If a setting exists in the HKLM branch or in both, it is locked. If it exists only in HKCU branch, it is user-changeable. It's like Group Policy's Computer Configuration vs User Configuration, but unlike Policy, it's not enforced if in HKCU. So more like Group Policy Preferences.

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Links to some general topics:

● Compare Start Menus

● Read the Search box usage guide.

I am a Windows enthusiast and helped a little with Classic Shell's testing and usability/UX feedback.

OK, but if it exists in both, which one takes precedence? The HKLM setting or the HKCU setting?

HKLM.

_________________
Links to some general topics:

● Compare Start Menus

● Read the Search box usage guide.

I am a Windows enthusiast and helped a little with Classic Shell's testing and usability/UX feedback.

Damn, that's a problem, then. Thanks for the prompt answer, even if it wasn't what I wanted to hear.

HKLM takes precedence obviously, otherwise it defeats the purpose of allowing an admin to lock certain settings.
If you have a way to prevent users from accessing the HKCU (like with regedit), you can adjust their settings and then set EnableSettings to 0 to disable the settings UI. If you set EnableSettings to 0 in HKCU, it will be per user. If you set it in HKLM, it will be for all users. Of course if a user has access to regedit he can re-enable his settings. He won't even need to, as he can edit the settings directly in the registry.

That's perfect. We lock our users out of Regedit using Group Policy, so the fact that they can re-enable settings is no problem at all. Thanks!