In Windows 10 Version 1703 , Microsoft has added a new Group Policy for the Windows 10 that gives you control over the various settings pages that appear in the Windows Settings app this Group Policy will come in very handy for many organizations and Home users. It would behoove systems administrators to lockdown unnecessary panes in addition to securing those panes which IT specifically wishes to keep out of the hands of end-users. This feature is particularly useful in a network environment, such as when configuring a kiosk or guest machine but there are many other scenarios where disabling the Settings app and the Control Panel will come in handy too. For example, if you’re the tech support person for your family and friends, and they keep calling you to reconfigure a feature over and over again. You can fix their computer once, and then block them access to change settings or if you share a device in the house with children, and you don’t want them messing around with the settings on Windows 10.
If you don’t have Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc) , you can lock down individual Settings panes through the Registry but it would be time consuming and , prone to human error. To stop users from changing settings in Windows 10 you can try our new portable freeware “Win10 Settings Blocker” Application.
Win10 Settings Blocker v1.1 – What’s New – (Saturday, 10. November 2018)
1. [Added] – Hide specified control panel items
2. [Added] – Export – Import Feature
3. [Added] – Some code improvements
How to use Win10 Settings Blocker
1. Download the Application , extract and run it
2. For example we want to block “Mobilhotspot” click Plus (Add to list) Button and choose Mobilhotspot from drop down menu , finally use Add to list button.
3. Now use the save settings (ok) Button . Mobilhotspot settings page has been blocked (we can add many items)
you can untick the box and use save settings button to make Mobilhotspot settings page visible again or you can right click any added entry and choose disable or delete option and save settings.
How to block Control panel items
Win10 Settings Blocker can block – Unblock (Hide – Unhide) Specified Control Panel Applets in Windows 10/8/7/vista/Xp . To hide a Control Panel item, click Options icon (wrench icon) and choose “Control Panel Options”
click Plus (Add to list) Button and choose any Control Panel Applet to hide (block) it.
Export – import Settings
After creating the Settings or control panel block List you can use the export feature and save your settings. Under Options menu you will find the Export – import feature , exporting setting will create a file like this “WsBlocker_20181110_123122.wsb” . You can restore all your settings newly installed windows system or you can import this file other computers on the network.
4. First Drop Down menu give us following choices ;
– Disable Blocking
– Hide Pages
– Show only pages
– Block settings pages
Block settings Pages will block All the setting app and Control panel access to unbloc them again we can use Disable Blocking feature.
Supported operating systems: Windows 10 (For settings pages)
Windows 10 , Windows 8.1 , Windows 8 , Windows 7 , Vista , Xp (For Control Panel Applets)
Supported languages: English , Turkish , German , Bulgarian , French , Hungarian , Japanese , Slovenian , Russian , Greek , Spanish , Polish , Chinese , Swedish , japanese , Korean, Hebrew , Italian , Dutch (Nederlands)
File: WsBlocker_x64.exe │ Virustotal
MD5: 55210fed4ac3f39ac591cfd49edac929
SHA1: f52b3e2265ee34f3a50a0af0dfeb3f38845dbe8d
File: WsBlocker.exe │ Virustotal
MD5: 81e4881a87b4ac5e4bf8d3b904dfd65d
SHA1: 93c1bf2de1326f44c5172d776e9978b095f85aa9
Thank you Richard.
win-10x settings blocker
I had a laugh about the "constant calls from neighbors/friends to re-fix ‘ad infinitum’ the same problems…" comment.
Been using DNS Jumper since first it was released (Major Geeks or CNet/Tucows), but came up today to update it … then found a treasure trove of great stuff, not seen since the days of X-tech tweaks.
Really are lots of incredible things here, more-so that they are neat and compact.
Might have been Einstein who said:
"Any fool* can make the simple complex …
but only a genius can make the complex simple."
My compliments and thank-you’s to Sordum.
Amazing stuff … well done indeed.
Cheers,
Rick.
[*: That was before ‘Donald’ came along, and supposedly got someone else to fill in the pesky hard bits (words) on his college documents/exams.]
We have noted it down , Thank you
this has no password protection, so its useless for me.
Thank you Thomas , we will check it
Also for some weird reason the Ease of Access item has popped up again even though all Ease of Access items are hidden (with your tool).
LOVE this tool but the Ease of Access issue really annoys me, ha ha.
We will check it , thanks
Hi, Thanks for this great tool!! I hide all Windows settings except de Devices (Printer). But there are still "System" , "Accounts" and Privacy" in the Windows settings available.
Can you help me, please?