How to disable a particular application from the system using registry

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Hi,

I have developed an application in MFC,my application is used set the rights or privileges to the user,so as a part of the application,i need to disable few applications from the system using registry.

Example :If i dont want the user use VLC Player or any other applications that are already installed in the machine.So how to disable and enable these application using registry.I will be thank full if some one guide me for this.

Thanks in Advance.

Posted 30-Oct-12 23:47pm

Rocky_Bas

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chaau · Answer 1 · 2012-10-30T23:57:00

Solution 1

Here[^] is an article from Microsoft. I think Method 2 is very feasible.

Posted 30-Oct-12 23:57pm

chaau

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Rocky_Bas 31-Oct-12 6:16am

Hi andrew,thanks for the reply ,i have one doubt in this ,in the method 2 it was written that to disable specific application we need DWORD value DisallowRun and set the value to 1 to disable.

So for example if i want to disable VLC player,i need to create a subkey VLC player and then add the DWORD value DisallowRun and set the value to 1 to disable.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion \Policies\VLC media player\DisallowRun

Is the same thing i have to do.

chaau 31-Oct-12 15:13pm

No, you need to create this key (if it does not exist):

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\DisallowRun

Then, for all programs that you need to disallow create string values, like this:
1=iexplorer.exe
2=notepad.exe
3=calc.exe
4=VlcPlayer.exe

Please note these two things:
* The numbers should be consecutive
* You need to type the exe name.

Try TweakUI program, and see how it does. Then replicate the same in your program

Rocky_Bas 2-Nov-12 22:28pm

Can this be done using code.

Rocky_Bas 3-Nov-12 3:22am

Thanks Andrew its working now

Rocky_Bas 3-Nov-12 4:19am

Hi Andrew there is a small problem iam having in this,its working when i add the key manually through regedit,but when i create the key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

its not getting created.

RegCreateKeyEx(HKEY_CURRENT_USER,L"HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion \Policies\Explorer\\DisallowRun",0,NULL,REG_OPTION_NON_VOLATILE,KEY_ALL_ACCESS,NULL,&hkey,0);

this is the key i have used to create key but its not working,is there any other way to create the key.

chaau 3-Nov-12 6:04am

try this one:
RegCreateKeyEx(HKEY_CURRENT_USER, L"Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion \\Policies\\Explorer\\DisallowRun", 0, NULL, REG_OPTION_NON_VOLATILE, KEY_ALL_ACCESS, NULL, &hkey,0);

Rocky_Bas 3-Nov-12 6:12am

Andrew i have done in the same way.Explorer folder was not there so i was trying to create the folder first and then add the subkey but explore key is not getting created ,below is the code
char *m_tmpChar;
m_tmpChar="iexplore.exe";
//RegCreateKeyEx(HKEY_CURRENT_USER,L"Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Explorer",0,NULL,REG_OPTION_NON_VOLATILE,KEY_ALL_ACCESS,NULL,&hkey,0);
RegCreateKeyEx(HKEY_CURRENT_USER,L"Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion \\Policies\\Explorer", 0, NULL, REG_OPTION_NON_VOLATILE, KEY_ALL_ACCESS, NULL, &hkey,0);
RegSetValueEx(hkey,L"disallowrun",NULL,REG_SZ,(unsigned char*)m_tmpChar,strlen(m_tmpChar)+1);
RegCloseKey(hkey);

chaau 3-Nov-12 6:17am

What is the return code of RegCreateKeyEx, and what error code returned by GelLastError(). Do you also have a space between CurrentVersion and \\Policies in your code?

Rocky_Bas 3-Nov-12 8:23am

I am unable to generate just specifically for this key
HKEY_CURRENT_USER,L"Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Policies\\Explorer

but if i use the same for this below key
HKEY_CURRENT_USER,L"Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\MCT

its working properly i really dont understand whats going wrong.

Rocky_Bas 3-Nov-12 8:24am

There is no space between Current version and policies
HKEY_CURRENT_USER,L"Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Explorer

chaau 3-Nov-12 17:21pm

What is return value?

Return value

If the function succeeds, the return value is ERROR_SUCCESS.

If the function fails, the return value is a nonzero error code defined in Winerror.h. You can use the FormatMessage function with the FORMAT_MESSAGE_FROM_SYSTEM flag to get a generic description of the error.