Have you ever needed to hide a drive on a system? For example, suppose you manage a system shared by multiple users in a public area, and you keep diagnostic and management applications on a separate drive.

Wouldn't it be nice to be able to hide that drive from users to prevent any mischievous exploration? You can do so with a simple registry edit.

Follow these steps:

1. Launch the Registry Editor (Regedit.exe).
2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindows CurrentVersionPoliciesExplorer.
3. Right-click the Servers key, and select New | DWORD value.
4. Name the value NoDrives.
5. Press [Enter] twice to open the Edit DWORD Value dialog box.
6. Using the list below, type a number that corresponds to the drive you want to hide in the Value Data text box, and click OK.
A: 1
B: 2
C: 4
D: 8
E: 16
F: 32
7. Close the Registry Editor.

You must restart the system or log out of Windows XP in order for the change to take effect.

To hide other drive letters that we didn't list, follow the pattern of doubling the number for each successive drive. For example, drive G: would have a value of 64.

To hide multiple drives, add the values together. For example, to hide drives A: and B:, use a value of 3. If you want to hide all drive letters, use a value of 67108864.

Note: Editing the registry is risky, so be sure you have a verified backup before making any changes.