Remove the Show Options from the View Options in Explorer

I'm trying to prevent my users from seeing hidden items and unchecking file name extensions through an explorer window. I looked through Group Policy and couldn't find a way to do this. Does anyone have any idea how I can either remove the two options (file name extensions and hidden items) or preferably disable the "Show" option?

Thanks!

Are your Users set as having Administrative Rights or as Standard Users? Standard can't do as much as Admin as for changing settings, programs, etc.

You couldn't do much without a context menu.

The solution is to keep others from using your account by using a strong PW/pin and log out when you leave the computer. Give them their own account as standard user. Any view settings they make to their account will affect only their files, not yours.

i run a powershell script on scheduled task to re-enable numlock if disabled. you could run this and modify it for ShowHiddenFiles or Extensions...

glasskuter said:

The solution is to keep others from using your account by using a strong PW/pin and log out when you leave the computer. Give them their own account as standard user. Any view settings they make to their account will affect only their files, not yours.

Click to expand...

This doesn't address my issue. I have a strong password and it's a workstation, not my computer specifically. A standard user can change settings that they aren't supposed to such as show hidden files and file name extensions. I was able to disable this in Windows 10.

Berton said:

Are your Users set as having Administrative Rights or as Standard Users? Standard can't do as much as Admin as for changing settings, programs, etc.

Click to expand...

The user account is a non-admin (Users), however, they still can select to show hidden items.

you cant hide it in windows 11's explorer without modifications. you could reimplement the win 10 UI and hide it from the ribbon though...

.https://www.elevenforum.com/t/restore-classic-file-explorer-with-ribbon-in-windows-11.620/post-576708
.https://www.paperstreetonline.com/server-2012-ribbon-ui-disable-hidden-items-checkbox/
.https://www.paperstreetonline.com/server-2012windows-8-ribbon-ui-disable-icons-shortcuts-tasks-and-commands/

dacrone said:

you cant hide it in windows 11's explorer without modifications. you could reimplement the win 10 UI and hide it from the ribbon though...

.https://www.elevenforum.com/t/restore-classic-file-explorer-with-ribbon-in-windows-11.620/post-576708
.https://www.paperstreetonline.com/server-2012-ribbon-ui-disable-hidden-items-checkbox/
.https://www.paperstreetonline.com/server-2012windows-8-ribbon-ui-disable-icons-shortcuts-tasks-and-commands/

Click to expand...

Thank you for this information, I really appreciate it. Windows 11 absolutely sucks to lock down. For safety reasons, standard users shouldn't be allowed to see hidden files or disable file name extenstions (hidden exe's disguised as pdf's) in an enterprise environment.

Leaf said:

Thank you for this information, I really appreciate it. Windows 11 absolutely sucks to lock down. For safety reasons, standard users shouldn't be allowed to see hidden files or disable file name extensions (hidden exe's disguised as pdf's) in an enterprise environment.

Click to expand...

Does your enterprise environment require you to allow users to run any executable they can find or download or create? (One I worked in did.) So you need to trust your users to be vigilant and sensible.

One thing you could do is to force the extension to show for .exe and any other 'dangerous' file extensions. This is straightforward. Add a string value AlwaysShowExt to the file type in HKCR e.g. HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile (you can look up the file type from the extension in the registry or use assoc at a command prompt). In your case you should apply the registry changes to HKLM\Software\classes\exefile , as you want to force this on to all users.

Here's an illustrated guide How to Show File Extensions in Windows 11 from WinAero. It says "Sign out and sign back from your user account. You can also restart the computer to apply the change." Running NirCmd /shellrefresh is less trouble. NirCmd - Windows command line tool

As for the hidden files, I don't think there's any cause for concern. Even if you could prevent users from doing this within explorer, it makes very little difference to users ability to access hidden files.

Mike