NT/2000/XP: Blocking Right Click on the Desktop

Contributed by AlexTheBeast December 1, 2003  
Tagged: Windows security

Blocking right clicks (or displaying of the context menus) on the desktop is vital method in securing public desktops.

I first noticed this hack at a local computer store where I couldn’t access the screen saver because they had blocked the ability to pull up context menus on the desktop via right click.

Since then I have used this often as a way to secure desktops that are open to public use.

1. Navigate to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
2. Find the DWORD value NoViewContextMenu
3. If it doesn’t exist, create it through the edit menu->new->DWORD
4. By setting this value to 1, the right click is turned off.
5. Allowing right clicks can be reset by setting this value to the default of 0.

Remember to back up your registry before making any changes.