As you have seen in Windows 7, the navigation pane in Windows
Explorer contains 5 subdivisions Favorites, Libraries, Homegroup, Computer and
Network. Some users don’t use all these branches all the time and want to clean
up the navigation pane. But in Windows 7 there is no alternative for solving
this problem except to modify the Windows Registry. In this tutorial I will
show you how to remove these subdivisions through the Registry Editor.
How to Remove the Favorites
1. Go to Start>Run>regedit and open the Windows
Registry Editor. Then navigate to the key below:
2. Right-click on ShellFolder and from
the drop down menu, select Permissions.
3. In Permissions for ShellFolder
window, choose the Administrators and under Permissions for Administrators and
in front of the Full Control, tick the Allow option.
4. Go back to Registry Editor and in
the right side window, double-click on Attributes.
5. In the Edit DWORD window, enter the
Value a9400100 and click on OK button. Restart your system to see the effect.
6. To restore the Favorites branch
again, follow the steps 1 to 5 and this time enter the value a0900100.
How to Remove the Libraries
Note: If you remove the Libraries, you may face some drawback to access the Windows Libraries items.
1. Go to Start>Run>regedit and then navigate to the key below:
And the find the key {031E4825-7B94-4dc3-B131-E946B44C8DD5}
2. Delete this key to get rid of
Libraries branch. For deleting this key just right-click on it and from the drop
down menu select Delete. Exit from the registry and restart your system to see
the effect.
3. To restore the Libraries
subdivision, navigate to the same path in Windows registry and create the key again.
How to Remove the Homegroup
To remove the Homegroup you don’t need
to modify any Windows registry key. You can remove it through Windows Control
Panel and Services. Just follow these steps:
1. Go to Control Panel>Network and
Internet>Choose homegruoup and sharing options and then in the next window
select Leave the homegroup.
2. The Leave the Homegroup window will
be open. Choose the Leave the homegroup.
3. In the Start search box type
services.msc and hit the Enter key to open the Windows Services.
4. Find the HomeGroup Listener and
double click on it.
5. In the HomeGroup Listener
Properties in front of Startup type, select Disabled.
6. Under the Service status, hit the
Stop button and wait till the Windows stop the service. OK the window and go
back to Services window.
7. This time double-click on HomeGroup
Provider and repeat the steps 1 to 6.
8. Open the Windows Explorer to see
the effect.
How to Remove the Networks
Note: This will also remove the
Network desktop icon.
1. Go to the Start>Run>regedit
and navigate to the key below:
2. Right-click on the ShellFolder and
from the drop down menu, select Permissions.
3. In the Permissions for SellFolder
window, choose Administrators and under Permissions for Administrators and
in front of Full Control, tick the Allow option and OK the window.
4. Go back to the Registry Editor
window and from the right side window, double-click on Attributes.
5. In the Edit DWORD, under the
Value data, enter b0940064 and OK the window.
6. Exit from the registry and restart
your system to see the effects.
7. To restore the Network branch,
repeat steps 1 to 6 and this time enter the amount b0040064.