Windows Explorer and Escape Network Drives

Determining the Necessary Registry Value

The "reg file" that you will build has to contain a value string which instructs Windows as to which drives to hide. This will be a eight character hexadecimal string.

Since Escape customers do not use consistent drive letters, we cannot simply provide the value to "hide drive K:" for example, so we will tell you how to get the value yourself.

Take all your drive letters from Z to A. Each letter is represented by either a zero (available) or one (hidden). Here is an example:

This configuration would make drives K and J invisible to Explorer.

Converting this Number to Hex

Now this big string of zeros and ones has to be converted to a smaller, hex value.

• Start up the Windows Calculator
• Switch to Scientific mode (on the View pull down)
• Click BIN and DWORD, then enter the zeros and ones (you may ignore leading zeros)
• Then click HEX

This screen shot shows what the calculator looks like just before clicking HEX.

The hex value displayed (with enough leading zeros to make eight characters, is the value you will need for the next step.

Armed with the proper value, you are ready to build the small text .reg file that will be run on each desktop. This is the text of the file (the last part includes our sample 00000600 value):

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\explorer]
"nodrives"=dword:00000600

This file should be given a name with a .reg suffix. Example: hide_drives.reg.

Running on each desktop

Each desktop that you want to have the drive(s) hidden on needs to run this file. The change will not go into effect until the computer is restarted.

How to run the file? A simple way is to point to this file (say on a network drive) in Explorer, and double click it. It will ask you to confirm that you want to make changes to the registry.

Undoing this Fix

It's easy to restore all of the drives on a desktop that has had drives hidden. Run a .reg file that contains this (once again, the change won't go into effect until the computer is restarted):

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\explorer]
"nodrives"=dword:00000000

Q Isn't messing with the registry dangerous?

A Well, if screwed up, it could be disastrous. However, it is one of the primary ways that the OS and applications are configured. Here's what Microsoft has to say:

WARNING: Using Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious, system-wide problems that may require you to reinstall Windows NT to correct them. Microsoft cannot guarantee that any problems resulting from the use of Registry Editor can be solved. Use this tool at your own risk.

Keep this in mind though, you can't hurt the network with this - this is purely a desktop thing.

Q Does this keep the user from getting to the Escape network drive in every way?

A No, it does not - because then they wouldn't be able to use Escape at all! If the user has access to the DOS prompt, then he/she can access the files through that means, and could still cause problems. Note though that this situation only arose from users mistakenly doing damage with Explorer.

Q Can I read the Microsoft info on this topic?