XP Pro and Vista: Prevent Taskbar Modifications

Contributed by William_Wilson March 18, 2006  
Tagged: Windows

This tutorial will show you how to lock the taskbar on a system so other users can not easily edit or move it. This has worked since XP Pro and will work in the latest versions of Microsoft Vista as well.

open the group policy editor
Start\Run type gpedit.msc

now move through the left pane to:

User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Start Menu and Taskbar\

now to the right find the key: Lock the Taskbar
double click it and select disabled

now to protect your task bar:
right click on the task bar setcion to the far right
and check the menu Lock the TaskBar

now go back to the group policy editor and change the setting to Enable

This will grey out the option we just changed so that it cannot be change back (without editing the group policy)

Questions/Comments: william_a_wilson@hotmail.com
-William. § (marvin_gohan)