Hide or Display Administrative Tools Menu

By | 2007-05-03

As with Windows NT, Windows 2000 has an ‘Administrative Tools’ folder on the Start Menu. This folder contains powerful administration utilities and therefore can be hidden to avoid accidental use.

Open your registry and find the key mentioned below.

Create a new string value, or modify the the existing value, named ‘StartMenuAdminTools’. Modify the value to equal ‘YES’ to show the administrative tools folder or ‘NO’ to hide it.

Exit your registry and log off for the changes to take effect.

Note: By using the same key except under the [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE] tree the tweak can be enforced system wide, instead of only user based.

Note: Hiding the folder does not stop the use of the tools, it only make it more difficult to locate them.

Key:HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
Value Name: StartMenuAdminTools
Data Type: REG_SZ
Data: YES or NO

Author: dwirch

Derek Wirch is a seasoned IT professional with an impressive career dating back to 1986. He brings a wealth of knowledge and hands-on experience that is invaluable to those embarking on their journey in the tech industry.

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