Windows Tweak: Hide Drives
Back by popular demand... Ever wish you could make one of your computer's drives invisible to anyone snooping around on your system? Well, happy days are here my friend! Whether you have sensitive docs, pictures, or any other private data, this is one of the easiest ways to keep them safe. Keep in mind that you'll still be able to access your hidden drives; you just won't see that they exist in Windows Explorer or the My Computer folder. Back up your registry before you start!
1. Open Regedit.
2. Navigate to one of these strings:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\
CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer - this only changes the settings for the current logged in user
HKEY_LOCALMACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\
CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer - this changes the settings for all users on the machine. You may have to create the key folder "Explorer" manually.
3. In the Explorer key folder, create a new DWORD value by right-clicking Explorer, then choosing New DWORD value. Name the value "NoDrives" (without the quotes). This value defines local and network drive visibility for each logical drive on the computer. All drives will be visible as long as this value's data is set to 0.
4. Following the table below, enter the decimal number corresponding to the drive(s) you want to hide as NoDrives value data. When you right-click on NoDrives and choose Modify, make sure you select Decimal base, not Hexadecimal.
Drive Number to hide:
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 drives: 67108863
If you want to hide more than one drive, you simply add the drive amounts together for a combined total. For example, to hide the D:/ and T:/ drives, add the decimal value for the D:/ drive to the decimal value to the T:/ drive. 8 (D) + 524288 (T) = 524296
To disable all of your visible drives, set the value to 67108863.
You must reboot your PC to see your changes. Have fun!
Why not use TweakUI?
Posted by: Mospeada | Tuesday, October 19, 2004 at 02:54 PM
because it's fun to do it manually?
Posted by: slane | Tuesday, October 19, 2004 at 03:42 PM
Still a nice registry hack. :) Something everyone should learn to do. Sweeeeeet! Like candy.
Posted by: Hyper Smiley | Tuesday, October 19, 2004 at 05:13 PM
Completely unrelated but, Firefox has grown on me. I do like it better now that I've used it more so I'm staying with it.
And sarah that Abiword you showed us a while back is really cool word alternative.
Posted by: John-Paul | Tuesday, October 19, 2004 at 06:52 PM
you can do this w/ tuneup utilities 2004
Posted by: Joe Kim | Tuesday, October 19, 2004 at 09:42 PM
good way to hide pr0n mawhahahaha
j/k
thank you :D
Posted by: Kuchino | Wednesday, October 20, 2004 at 06:39 AM
Cool, check out my site!
Posted by: Jimmy | Wednesday, October 20, 2004 at 01:05 PM
Sara how do i find the hidden drive once i hide it?
Posted by: Rudy | Saturday, October 23, 2004 at 08:22 PM
Keep for future use.
Posted by: amali | Sunday, June 26, 2005 at 07:28 PM
How to Hide drives Without restart system ?
Posted by: Darg | Tuesday, September 06, 2005 at 11:11 PM
hi hope you fine.
sir if you won't mind that how i should hide my drives in XP or 98 Windows.Just write me the main stupe that i should follow that one and sorry sir what is the shortcut key for openning the CD-ROM from keyboard.thank you
Posted by: Abdul Musawer | Thursday, April 06, 2006 at 12:29 AM