Restrict user access to a particular partition in Windows 7

You can easily restrict user access to any particular partition (or drive) in Windows 7 using either Registry or Group Policy Editor by following this tutorial.

We can use two methods; either by using Windows Group Policy Editor to restrict user access to a particular partition (or drive) or by using the Registry Editor to restrict user access to a particular partition. The first method is easy, but Group Policy Editor is not available in Windows 7 Home Premium or below; so the users using Home Premium or below, will have to follow the Registry trick to restrict user access to a particular partition.

 

Using Windows Group Policy Editor to restrict user access to a particular partition

 

Click the Start button, type gpedit.msc in the search box of the Start Menu and hit Enter from keyboard:

 

 

In the left hand pane, navigate to User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Explorer.
Then on the right hand pane, double click on the option saying Prevent access to drives from My Computer:

 

 

In the Window that pop ups after double clicking; select the option Enable then under Options from the drop down menu.
You can restrict a certain drive to restrict user access or restrict all :

 

Click Apply and OK. Close Group Policy Editor. This is how we can restrict user access to a particular partition in Windows 7 using Gpedit.msc

 

Using Windows Registry to restrict user access to a particular partition

 

Click the Start Orb. Type Regedit and hit Enter from keyboard. Windows Registry Editor will open; Navigate to:

 

HKCUSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionPoliciesExplorer

 

Right Click on the right handed pane and create a New 32 bit DWORD value named NoViewOnDrive and double click it,  add these decimal numbers to hide the drive(s):

A: 1, B: 2, C: 4, D: 8, E: 16, F: 32, G: 64, H: 128, I: 256, J: 512, K: 1024, L: 2048, M: 4096, N: 8192, O: 16384, P: 32768, Q: 65536, R: 131072, S: 262144, T: 524288, U: 1048576, V: 2097152, W: 4194304, X: 8388608, Y: 16777216, Z: 33554432, ALL: 67108863

 

(Thanks to PCTools for providing the last values)

This how can use Registry Editor to restrict user access to any drive.