Policy
Prevent changing desktop icons
Microsoft Windows
Policy overview
Key metadata and intent for this policy.
Supported OS tags: Windows10, Windows10RT, Windows11, Windows2000, Windows7, Windows8, Windows81, WindowsRT, WindowsRT81, WindowsServer2003, WindowsServer2008, WindowsServer2012, WindowsServer2012R2, WindowsServer2016, WindowsVista, WindowsXP
Prevents users from changing the desktop icons. By default, users can use the Desktop Icon Settings dialog in the Personalization or Display Control Panel to show, hide, or change the desktop icons. If you enable this setting, none of the desktop icons can be changed by the user. For systems prior to Windows Vista, this setting also hides the Desktop tab in the Display Control Panel.
Registry values
How enabled and disabled states update the registry.
| Scope | Registry location | Type | Enabled value | Disabled value | Copy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| User | Path Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System Value name NoDispBackgroundPage | REG_DWORD | HKCU 1 | HKCU 0 |
Policy elements
Inputs and configuration options exposed by this policy.
This policy has no additional user input fields.