Server 2012 – Ribbon UI: Disable Hidden Items Checkbox

For a good explanation of the process involved to do this and how I figured this out, check out my other post here. Microsoft really dropped the ball this time around by reinventing the wheel (aka the Ribbon UI) and not creating the associated Group Policy templates to be able to disable items that standard users should never have access to.

Just a couple of questions for Microsuck…

1. Why in the hell does a person hide a file or folder in the first place? Could it be because they don’t want users to access it? Sure you can set file permissions but what about hidden DFS root folders that they have to have write access to? Do you want your users to have access to those? Nothing can go wrong there…
2. Why would I have a Group Policy to disable access to “File Options” yet have a checkbox to show “Hidden Items” with no way to disable it. It doesn’t make sense. You don’t make sense. Dumbasses. Finish the fucking product before you roll it out for god sakes. This OS has been out for three years already, how in the hell is this not fixed yet? (P.S. you suck.)

LOL, enough of that unpleasantry, here’s how to disable the “Hidden Items” check box in the Ribbon UI:

Create the following registry keys…

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CommandStore\shell\Windows.ShowHiddenFiles\AttributeMask

Set the REG_DWORD value to “00100000” hexadecimal.

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CommandStore\shell\Windows.ShowHiddenFiles\AttributeValue

Set the REG_DWORD value to “00100000” hexadecimal.

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CommandStore\shell\Windows.ShowHiddenFiles\ImpliedSelectionModel

Set the REG_DWORD value to “00000000” hexadecimal.

Then find the key called “ExplorerCommandHandler” that has a value of “{f7300245-1f4b-41ba-8948-6fd392064494}” and delete out the CLSID.

Set ExplorerCommandHandler=""