How to Hide Programs and Features Page in Control Panel?

The Programs and Feature page in Control Panel lists all the programs installed on a computer. All the programs are arranged alphabetically on this page. Users can access this page to view, change, repair, or uninstall the programs. If an organization or the administrator doesn’t want the users to know what programs are installed on the computer, they can simply hide this page from standard users. They will also be unable to uninstall or repair the installed programs through Programs and Features. In this article, we will show you methods through which you can easily hide the Programs and Feature page from standard users.

The setting for hiding the Programs and Feature can be found in the Group Policy Editor. However, the Group Policy Editor isn’t available on all versions of the Windows operating system. That is why, we have also included the Registry Editor method, which can be accessed through any Windows edition.

Method 1: Using the Local Group Policy Editor

The Local Group Policy Editor got all those settings that cannot be found in the Control Panel and Settings app. The Programs and Feature page in the Control Panel can also be configured in the Group Policy Editor. There is a specific policy setting that can hide the Programs and Feature page in the Control Panel. The setting is listed only under the User Configuration category. Follow the below steps and hide the Programs and Feature page by using the Group Policy Editor:

Note: Skip this method, if you are a Windows 10 Home user. That is because the Group Policy Editor is only available for Windows 10 Pro, Education, and Enterprise editions.

1. Press the Windows and R keys on your keyboard to open the Run dialog box. Now type “gpedit.msc” and press the Enter key to open the Local Group Policy Editor.

   

2. In the Local Group Policy Editor window, go to the following location:

   User Configuration\ Administrative Templates\ Control Panel\ Programs\

   

3. Double-click on the setting named “Hide Programs and Features page” and it will open in another window. Now in this window, change the toggle option from Not Configured to Enabled.

   

4. Click on the Apply button and then the Ok button to save the changes. It will automatically update the changes and hide the Programs and Features page.
5. However, if it doesn’t automatically update the group policy, then open the Command Prompt as an administrator.
6. Now type the following command in Command Prompt (Admin) and press the Enter key to force the group policy update. You can also do this by restarting the computer.

   gpupdate /force

   

7. You can always unhide it back by changing the toggle option to Not Configured or Disabled in step 3.

Method 2: Using the Registry Editor

Another method for hiding the Programs and Features page is by using the Registry Editor. If you already used the Group Policy Editor method, then this will already be configured. However, if you are using this method directly, then you need to create the missing key and value for the setting. It is also the only available method for Windows 10 Home users. We have also included the step for creating a registry backup. You can skip it if you don’t want to create a registry backup. Follow the below steps to hide the Programs and Features page:

1. Hold the Windows key and press R to open the Run command box. Now type “regedit” in the box and press the Enter key to open the Registry Editor window.
   Note: if prompted by UAC (User Account Control), then click on the Yes button.

   

2. You can also create a backup before making any new changes in Registry. Click on the File menu in the menu bar and choose the Export option. Name the file and provide the path where you want to save it, then click on the Save button.

   

   Note: You can restore the backup by clicking on the File menu and then choosing the Import option. Then select the file that you saved previously.

3. In the Registry Editor window, go to the following location:

   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Programs

   Note: If any of the following keys are missing, right-click on the existing key and choose the New > Key option to create them.

4. Right-click on the right pane of the Programs key and choose the New > DWORD (32-bit) Value option. Now name the value as “NoProgramsAndFeatures“.

   

5. Double-click on the NoProgramsAndFeatures value to open it and then change the value data to 1.

   

6. After making all these changes, make sure to reboot the computer to apply the changes.
7. You can always unhide it back by changing the value data to 0 or by simply removing the NoProgramsAndFeatures value from the Registry.