Disable Help and Support

[CHiLL]

I need to be able to disable this feature from running at all on a laptop. Reason is that it creates a loophole in the way we've set it up.

 

I have created a path/hash rule to disable it from running, but if you press F1 or go through a programmes context menu and click help, it just runs, despite being blocked.

 

Any ideas?

[ihaveaproblem]

I have this disabled. Fairly sure I only created a path/hash rule using software restrictions as well and it does the job

Let me check.

 

Edit

 

Ok I only have a hash rule to block helppane.exe and winhlp32.exe

If I remember correctly when creating the hash rules I had to copy winhelp and helpane from a client and set the hash rule on them because when pointing it to the one on the server it didn’t work.

 

Hope that makes sense.

Edited October 17, 2011 by ihaveaproblem

[CHiLL]

Unfortunately that didn't work. Pressing F1 and going through Remote Desktop's Help context menu (for example) bypasses this and it launches anyway, despite the block.

[ihaveaproblem]

Unfortunately that didn't work. Pressing F1 and going through Remote Desktop's Help context menu (for example) bypasses this and it launches anyway, despite the block.

 

Not sure then. It seems to work for me. Blocks F1 from working and also blocks help if users click the help symbol on windows. Not sure if it blocks the help symbol in remote desktop connections because we user start menu redirection and students dont have a shortcut to this.

[CHiLL]

Hmm. The reason I want it blocked is because it opens a loophole in our dumb client solution.

 

Basically we have dumb clients based on a mix of XP and Windows 7, they boot up and log into a local account automatically named "Remote".

This local account is locked down, so much so that even explorer.exe doesn't run.

In it's place runs a VBscript which checks for network connectivity, then launches a pre-configured RDP file, which connects to our remote server.

 

However, if a student were clever enough, they could launch the Help utility of mstsc.exe, then click a web link, which opens a local Internet Explorer on the physical machine. Then type C:\ into the address bar and up comes explorer.exe. Which isn't what we want.

 

Windows XP and Windows 7 x86 was easy to fix, as renaming the mstsc.chm in C:\Windows\Help stopped that. But in this one Windows 7 x64 laptop, that appears to have been altered, and no such file exists, yet the help files still work.

 

I need to stop them launching mstsc.chm or the x64 equivilent.

[klesmy]

Hi I know this is an old thread but I needed to disable the help and support on a couple of our windows 7 laptops. I had to take ownership of c:\windows\helppane. Then grant myself full control permissions. Next I simply renamed the file to helppane_disabled. Now neither clicking help and support or pressing F1 work. Hope this may be of help to others