What's The Easiest Way To Disable The Calculator In Windows

[Fazza]

I've had a quick look in to Group Policies and I can see where you block the graphing part of the Windows 10 Calculator but I'm looking for a way to stop the calculator running at all - is there a group policy setting I can use to block the calculator from working?

[paulkerton]

I'd have thought you block calc.exe running - But I'm really curious at to why you need to?

[Fazza]

I'd have thought you block calc.exe running

 

calc.exe is blocked already but the Calculator App still runs. If you try and run calc.exe it does not open. I believe the Calculator is a Store app.

 

 

But I'm really curious at to why you need to?

 

To prevent cheating in exams, it's one of the requirements like not having access to the internet etc.

[ThomL]

Calculator is a Microsoft Store app, for exams I resorted to blocking the Microsoft Store and all Microsoft Store apps.

 

There is a Machine GPO that might be worth trying:

 

However this didn't work for me - I need a per user approach to locking down the apps. Exam accounts need to login to any/all domain joined computers and not have access to the windows store apps like calculator/camera etc. To do this I have a PowerShell script that checks users group membership, if the user is a member of an exams security group then the registry setting to block the store/store apps is set to 1 (HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\WindowsStore\DisableStoreApps) and the apps are blocked. If the user isn't a member of the exams security group the registry is set to 0 acting a fail safe to make sure regular users have expected access to calculator/camera/etc. The script runs from a scheduled task that triggers at user login - users don't have the permissions needed to modify the registry so use of a scheduled task and an account with the correct level of access solves this. A single GPO is used to copy the script to clients and manage the scheduled task.

 

The above has been working okay from my testing so far - the scheduled task doesn't trigger the instant a user logs in, so for the first minute or 2 the exam accounts still have account to calculator and other store apps. The exams team here sign the accounts in ahead of exam start times by at least 5 mins so the slight delay before the apps are blocked hasn't been an issue.

Edited February 4, 2022 by ThomL

[Norphy]

Does Applocker not work? Denying access to the Microsoft.WindowsCalculator package ought to do it - create a rule under "Packaged App Rules" rather than "Executable Rules"

[ThomL]

Does Applocker not work? Denying access to the Microsoft.WindowsCalculator package ought to do it - create a rule under "Packaged App Rules" rather than "Executable Rules"

 

Much simpler way of doing it! We were having issues with AppLocker and Windows version I believe, as well an needing to migrate SRPs to AppLocker and a few other issues. I'm sure there was a reason I had to do things the hard way...

[dmj]

Bit of a hijack/whine, but how/when did Windows get so complicated that there is thread on a technical forum about how to uninstall/block an application from running !!!

Just seems crazy to me!

[Guest Guest]

Applocker?

[Norphy]

Applocker?

 

Is that a suggestion or an enquiry as to what Applocker is?

[slugshead]

I resorted to blocking the Microsoft Store and all Microsoft Store apps. .

 

this will break more than it fixes, you're better off leaving the store apps installed, setting up the store for business (whilst you still can) and use applocker to deny access to the apps

[jthompson]

In terms of blocking it with AppLocker, if you manage your GPOs from a server, you might not have the Calculator app present on the server when attempting to create a rule for it. You go to browse for an app to block and it's not there.

 

You can get around that IIRC by going through the same steps on a Windows client system that does have the app, only using its local security policy editor instead of Group Policy editor, and copy and pasting the app ID (or whatever is needed) from that wizard over to your GPO.

[Guest Guest]

Is that a suggestion or an enquiry as to what Applocker is?

 

Suggestion.

[ThomL]

this will break more than it fixes, you're better off leaving the store apps installed, setting up the store for business (whilst you still can) and use applocker to deny access to the apps

I'm not uninstalling the apps:

 

The store and apps are being blocked on the device for the user session using a registry settings. There is a GPO to set this at a device level, however we need this restriction only in place for certain users and at the time could not use AppLocker. This is why the outlined solution was used - a script to perform a group membership lookup of the logged in user and then set the registry key that the GPO would set to block the store and apps if the account is an exam account.

 

What is going to break (more than it fixes) for the exam accounts that receive the restriction of no access to the store or the store apps?

[chazzy2501]

do this in GPO

 

 

it a computer setting so you'll have to configure a group of users to block the rule (mine is students)

[Fazza]

Calculator is a Microsoft Store app, for exams I resorted to blocking the Microsoft Store and all Microsoft Store apps.

 

There is a Machine GPO that might be worth trying:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]64529[/ATTACH]

 

However this didn't work for me

 

Doesn't work for me either! Thanks.

[Fazza]

do this in GPO

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]64552[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]64553[/ATTACH]

 

it a computer setting so you'll have to configure a group of users to block the rule (mine is students)

 

First time using AppLocker so wasnt expecting it to be this easy/simple! The calculator 'app' is now blocked.

[sts_66]

This has been bugging me for weeks - I assigned the calculator key to "C:\Program Files\Microsoft IntelliType Pro\LaunchCalc.exe", a macro written by someone else - it worked for years, loading only one instance of the old version of calc.exe that I copied from my Vista PC to my Win10 System32 directory, renamed to calc1.exe because the Win10 calc app is named calc.exe and is located in the same directory. Configuring my the calc key on my keyboard to calc1.exe would open a new calc every time (not just bring the already open calc window to the top), that's why I found the LaunchCalc.exe solution. However, it stopped working - I found this thread and see there aren't any solutions - well, I just found one! Go to the System32 directory, take ownership of calc.exe, then rename it to calc.exe.app - you also need a copy of the Vista calc.exe in that directory too (or Win 7 calc.exe, almost the same), I'm sure you can find it on the web somewhere. Now LaunchCalc.exe does what it used to do - bring the already open calc window into focus on top of all other open windows. Of course this will only work if you have a calc button on your keyboard and can assign a specific program to it.

[jthompson]

This has been bugging me for weeks - I assigned the calculator key to "C:\Program Files\Microsoft IntelliType Pro\LaunchCalc.exe", a macro written by someone else - it worked for years, loading only one instance of the old version of calc.exe that I copied from my Vista PC to my Win10 System32 directory, renamed to calc1.exe because the Win10 calc app is named calc.exe and is located in the same directory. Configuring my the calc key on my keyboard to calc1.exe would open a new calc every time (not just bring the already open calc window to the top), that's why I found the LaunchCalc.exe solution. However, it stopped working - I found this thread and see there aren't any solutions - well, I just found one! Go to the System32 directory, take ownership of calc.exe, then rename it to calc.exe.app - you also need a copy of the Vista calc.exe in that directory too (or Win 7 calc.exe, almost the same), I'm sure you can find it on the web somewhere. Now LaunchCalc.exe does what it used to do - bring the already open calc window into focus on top of all other open windows. Of course this will only work if you have a calc button on your keyboard and can assign a specific program to it.

 

FYI, you may find that AutoHotKey is perfect for little customisations such as this.

 

https://www.autohotkey.com/boards/viewtopic.php?t=75553

[sts_66]

I've messed around with AHK before, it didn't always do what it was supposed to do - sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't, but I think that was because of the website I was using it in, their code was messed up - my calc solution is way simpler anyway and doesn't require any programming knowledge to fix the issue. Unless you're talking about using AHK for PC keyboards that don't have a calc button - then AHK would absolutely be the best solution.

[Noxid_w]

Has anybody had any luck with this in Windows 11? I've tried the AppLocker method but I can still open it.

[BOOT]

AppLocker still works for me. Make sure the Application Identity service is still running.. and that you're using a supported edition. Education or Enterprise, no Pro variants.

[Noxid_w]

AppLocker still works for me. Make sure the Application Identity service is still running.. and that you're using a supported edition. Education or Enterprise, no Pro variants.

 

mmm no still no luck, I've verified that the service is running and we are using Education version. Getting quite frustrated with this now.

[thimon]

Has anybody had any luck with this in Windows 11? I've tried the AppLocker method but I can still open it.

 

I just delete the exe automatically via GPO for the Calculator App for devices in our Exam OU, gets auto restored when devices are taken out of it [emoji846][emoji106]

[Noxid_w]

I just delete the exe automatically via GPO for the Calculator App for devices in our Exam OU, gets auto restored when devices are taken out of it [emoji846][emoji106]

That's the new plan I'm going with. We can just rebuild those machines after the exam.

[lafleur1977]

do this in GPO

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]64552[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]64553[/ATTACH]

 

it a computer setting so you'll have to configure a group of users to block the rule (mine is students)

 

I tried this but it doesn't seem to be working - have I missed something?

 

 

Thanks