In this post, you will learn how to hide or show pages from Windows 10 Settings app using group policy. Starting with Windows 10, version 1703, or later a group policy was introduced to manage access to the Settings app pages. This helps IT, Administrators, to hide pages from users that they don’t want them to access while still enabling access to pages that they want or need users to access.
Each Settings app page has a URI that can be used to identify the page programmatically. This is how the Settings app Group Policy knows which page to enable or block access to. An administrator will use the URI of the page to tell the Group Policy what page or pages they want to control.
What is Settings App?
The following is Settings apps in Windows 10. Each page has one or many settings. It’s very important to HIDE or SHOW some of the specific settings pages.
Hide or Show Windows 10 Settings App Pages Using Group Policy
To hide or show pages from Windows 10 settings app, follow the steps below
You must be logged in as an Administrator on the computer.
- In Windows 10 device, click Start type gpedit.msc in search to run the Local Group Policy Editor.
- Navigate to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Control Panel. Double-click the Settings Page Visibility policy to edit it.
- Select Enabled, click Apply and OK. Depending on your requirement, specify either a ShowOnly: or Hide: string.
The Settings app Group Policy has two modes can either specify a list of Settings app pages to show or a list of Settings app pages to hide. You do this by enabling the Group Policy and specifying a multi-string value that begins either with ShowOnly: or Hide: followed by a semicolon-delimited list of the Settings app pages. For a full list of ms-settings URIs 👉 MS-Settings URI Scheme Reference.
Hide Settings App Pages in Windows 10
- If you want to hide only bluetooth and taskbar, enable access to everything else the string would be as follows:
Hide:bluetooth;taskbar
- Close the Local Group Policy Editor. If Settings app already open, close them and reopen the Settings app. The pages you hide will reflect.
The result will as follow, Settings app will hide only Bluetooth, taskbar section.
Show Settings App Pages in Windows 10
If you want to show only about and yourinfo in Windows Settings app, the string would be as follows:
Showonly:about;yourinfo
- Close the Local Group Policy Editor. If Settings app already open, close them and reopen the Settings app. The pages you show will reflect in the app.
The result will as follow, Settings app will show only about, yourinfo section.
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