Is there a way that I can disable a program without uninstalling it? Essentially, the program would no longer be listed in programs and the program itself wouldn't show up in search, but the physical files themselves wouldn't be removed. Attempting to launch the program while it's disabled would require it to be re-enabled. Re-enabling the program would be significantly faster than reinstalling and simply be a matter of allowing it to show up in programs and search. Is this a thing in Windows? Is this possible to do—with third party programs or otherwise?
47 Answers
Easy - use the windows registry like that:
Press Win+R and type regedit and hit Enter to open the Registry Editor.
Now navigate to the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\UninstallIf you are looking for an application which is 32-bit and your system is 64 bit use the following instead:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\UninstallNow, inside this folder, find the folder for the application that you want to hide. Right-click on the application folder, select New and then click on DWORD. Name the new value SystemComponent and give it a value of 1.
I don't know if this is a solution that works the way you want it, but you can try it out and see for yourself. Also, I don't think it'll work 100% the way you want it
Normally all programs/applications will be shown if you start typing the name in the start menu. If you right-click on them, you can select "Go to file location". This will send you to StartMenu\Programs directory. If you move the required program away from this folder (to the desktop for example), it will no longer appear in your start menu when searching it in the start menu. You can move it back in if you want to reuse it.
Optimally, you can write a script (I presume you are familiar with this) that automatically copies the program that's linked in the start menu to a seperate folder and back.
There are three methods I can think of off the top of my head on how this can be done, all permissions related. You can either remove a user or group's read access to a folder and/or files in the File Permissions dialog. Alternatively, you can remove the execute permission in the advanced permissions of the aforementioned dialog.
With the former method, the affected users will not be able to read the files or folders contents, thereby making it unable to be executed. Be aware, all files with this change cannot be read at all, meaning a text file in the folder, or a configuration file, will not be able to opened or edited. You can limit the permission change to just the executable.
With the latter method, it is more targeted and only the executable would be affected and unable to run.
Lastly, you could mark the files/folders hidden. This wouldnt make them non-executable, but unable to be seen without some snooping.
Of course, you would manually remove the Start Menu entries manually.
I wont go in to much detail on how to do it, as there are countless guides you can Google on how to do this. Here is one example.
How to Block (or Allow) Certain Applications for Users in Windows
If you’d like to limit what apps a user can run on a PC, Windows gives you two options. You can block the apps you don’t want a user to run, or you can restrict them to running only specific apps. Here’s how to do it.
RELATED: How to Use System Restore in Windows 7, 8, and 10
NOTE: Be absolutely sure that you are making changes to a user account you actually want to restrict, and that you always have an unrestricted administrative account available to undo those changes. This is especially true if you are restricting users to a specific set of apps, as those users will lose access even to tools like Registry Editor and Local Group Policy Editor. If you do accidentally apply restrictions to your administrative account, the only way we’ve found to reverse the changes is to run System Restore by going to Settings > Update & Security > Recovery and clicking the “Restart now” button under Advanced Startup. From there, you can find the setting for running System Restore after a restart, since you won’t be able to run System Restore the normal way. For this reason, we also highly recommend creating a restore point before making any of the changes here.
Home Users: Block or Restrict Apps by Editing the Registry To block or restrict apps in the Home edition of Windows, you’ll need to dive into the Windows Registry to make some edits. The trick here is that you’ll want to log on as the user you want to make changes for, and then edit the Registry while logged onto their account. If you have multiple users for which you want to changes for, you’ll have to repeat the process for each user.
Standard warning: Registry Editor is a powerful tool and misusing it can render your system unstable or even inoperable. This is a pretty simple hack and as long as you stick to the instructions, you shouldn’t have any problems. That said, if you’ve never worked with it before, consider reading about how to use the Registry Editor before you get started. And definitely back up the Registry (and your computer!) before making changes.
Block Certain Apps Through the Registry
First, you’ll need to log on to Windows using the user account for which you want to block apps. Open the Registry Editor by hitting Start and typing “regedit.” Press Enter to open Registry Editor and give it permission to make changes to your PC.
In the Registry Editor, use the left sidebar to navigate to the following key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies
Next, you’re going to create a new subkey inside the Policies key. Right-click the Policieskey, choose New > Key, and then name the new key Explorer .
Next you’re going to create a value inside the new Explorer key. Right-click the Explorer key and choose New > DWORD (32-bit) value. Name the new value DisallowRun .
Double-click the new DisallowRun value to open its properties dialog. Change the value from 0 to 1 in the “Value data” box and then click “OK.”
Back in the main Registry Editor window, you’re now going to create a new subkey inside the Explorer key. Right-click the Explorer key and choose New > Key. Name the new key DisallowRun , just like the value you already created.
Now, it’s time to start adding apps you want to block. You’ll do this by creating a new string value inside the DisallowRun key for each app you want to block. Right-click the DisallowRunvalue and then choose New > String Value. You’ll be naming these values with simple numbers, so name the first value you create “1.”
Double-click the new value to open its property dialog, type the name of the executable you want to block into the “Value data” box (e.g., notepad.exe ), and then click “OK.” Repeat this process, naming the second string value “2” and the third “3” and so on, and then adding the executable file names you want to block to each value.
When you’re done, you can restart Windows, log onto that user account, and then test things by trying to run one of those apps. You should see a “Restrictions” window pop-up letting you know that you can’t run the app.
The easy and user-friendly solution would be the Microsoft Family website, checkout this post. But you'll be using a new Member/Standard user account since your existing one would be the Administrator account and it's not possible to set restrictions on it, but you'll be using that to block the apps for the Standard user.
Follow this article to create the Standard user account and have it connected with your device. Remember to turn Activity Reporting on. Once done, sign into your device with this user account and just once launch the app you want to block, use it for a couple of minutes and close it. Then login to the Microsoft Family website with your Administrator account and you'll find the app show up under Screen time -> Apps & Games for that user and select Block app. Additionally you may also want to turn on the App and Game limits option there and then you may limit your apps usage by duration and/or time window for specific days of the week.
As @Biswapriyo mentioned in the comments, I just rename the executable file. (I add -disabled to the end of the name.) Then if I want it to work again, I just rename it to the original name. Of course, this doesn't fully hide it from all menus, as you requested, but it's very fast and easy.
Take a look at the procedure here: This may also work in Windows 10. It's done by registry keys/values.
