Windows 8 - Remove access to Apps Section

[jaminben]

Morning all,

 

Does anyone know how to remove access or prevent students from running things within the 'Apps' section of the Windows 8 start menu (the bit below the tiles)?

 

Thanks

 

Ben

[gerardsweeney]

Don't know if it's of any help, but disabling UAC prevents any Metro (or whatever the hell it's called) apps from running

[jaminben]

Thanks for the response... what's the knock on effect of disabling UAC? All I really need to do is prevent access to things like Java (see attached screenshot).

[Arthur]

Could you simply delete the shortcuts you don't want students accessing?

 

what's the knock on effect of disabling UAC?

I wouldn't recommend it.

 

If you turn off UAC you are running with admin privileges and access rights all the time, and all of your processes are running at High integrity level. Even when you're browsing the web at a non-secure site. The potential for harm there should be obvious. (Source)

 

In addition to the above, turning off UAC will also disable file-system and registry virtualization.

[3s-gtech]

I've found that the usual 'Remove common program groups from the Start Menu' GPO setting does this, and prevents them from running. As it turned out this wasn't what we wanted (we need the Camera app), so I set a deny permission on the All Users Start Menu instead.

[Arthur]

IIRC, aren't you meant to use AppLocker to block access to Metro apps.

[jaminben]

I'm not 100% sure but the Java links are normally found in control panel (Windows 7) which we block access to but for what ever reason they appear in the Apps section for Windows 8.1.

 

IIRC, aren't you meant to use AppLocker to block access to Metro apps.

 

That's what I thought but they don't appear in my AppLocker to be blockable... maybe because they're not official Windows 8 Apps?

Edited October 6, 2014 by jaminben

[Arthur]

but for whatever reason they appear in the Apps section for Windows 8.1.

I think it's because the Java installer creates shortcuts in the following folder.

 

%ProgramData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Java

 

Try deleting that folder and they should disappear from the Apps section of the Start Screen.

[jaminben]

I think it's because the Java installer creates shortcuts in the following folder.

 

%ProgramData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Java

 

Try deleting that folder and they should disappear from the Apps section of the Start Screen.

 

YAY, that worked

 

Now what's the best method for deleting that folder from 63 other machines? I guess I could do it with a powershell script.

[Arthur]

PowerShell startup script or Group Policy Preferences perhaps.

[jaminben]

PowerShell startup script or Group Policy Preferences perhaps.

 

You'll have to excuse my ignorance but I've never used GPP before... how would you do it with that?

[3s-gtech]

Computer Configuration/Preferences/Windows Settings/Files - New - File - Delete option and select the path.

[jaminben]

Computer Configuration/Preferences/Windows Settings/Files - New - File - Delete option and select the path.

 

Ah, easy as that.... now I feel a bit dumb

 

Every days a school day as they say...

Edited October 6, 2014 by jaminben