Hiding Windows Components from Users

I’m going to start posting a Windows or Mac OS X tip at least once a week, maybe even more. The tip for today will allow you to hide components from users, and keep them from re-installing apps such as games. There are multiple ways to do this, but this one works pretty well as most users do not even know this file exists. You will need administrator or power use

First you will need to navigate to the directory C:\windows\inf and look for the file sysoc.inf.

(if you can not see the C:\windows\inf directory, from explorer go to tools then folder options and make sure the circle to show hidden files and folders is selected)

Once you find the sysoc.inf file just double click on the file to open it. You will find quite a few lines of text, and for this example we are only going to pay attention to the games (you can use this to hide other options in Windows components such as IIS, MSN Explorer, MSN Messenger, etc...) Look for the line that starts with “Games” it should read something like

Games=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,games.inf,,7

Make the changes below that are in red to this line.

Games=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,games.inf,hide,7

This will hide games from the windows component area, and the user will not be able to reinstall the games unless they have administrator privileges and know where the file is. This can also be accomplished through the group policy editor, but we will save that for a later post.

Forget Vista SP1 where is XP SP3?

It bothers me that Microsoft will be offering the first service pack for Vista before a third service pack for XP. Windows XP service pack 2 has been out since August 25, 2004, and there has been no rush on a service pack with the estimated date of arrival being in the latter half of 2007. This angers me for 2 reasons:


1. The only reason Microsoft is pushing for the release of Vista is due to lackluster sales of the operating system. Microsoft has to know that many people are waiting on the first service pack to be released before upgrading to Vista. This means that customers using XP are no longer priority and are being pushed to the side to grow profits, and with the kind of mentality no wonder they are starting to lose many of their customers to OS X and linux.

2. If you are running a clean install of Windows XP with service pack 2 it takes much longer to wait on all the updates to install, as to the alternative of having a service pack slipstreamed. Windows XP post service pack 2 updates keep coming, and service pack 3 is still a long ways out.

So as you can see Microsoft is putting profits before customer satisfaction. Here is a tip for Microsoft, if you keep your older customers happy they are more likely to upgrade.