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Is there any way to disable the 'My Network Places' in the Explorer pane? I'm trying to configure TextPad 5.2.0 to work in a secure environment and the application ignores the Group Policy setting to not display 'My Network Places' on the Desktop.

If this isn't possible, is there a way to disable TextPad's ability to invoke Explorer?

Many thanks.

Right click onTask Bar
Left click on Properties/Start Menu/Customized/Advanced/
Remove checkmark from My Network Places.
OK your way back to the desktop.

The paths above may vary slightly on different versions of Windows. Above setting are from XP PRO system.

This needs to be done for each User name in Windows XP system. Is not saved for All Users.

Thanks for the suggestion, Bob.

I'd already tried this option, as well as the Group Policy option and it works for every other instance of it (i.e. no 'My Network Places' on Desktop or in an Explorer.exe window called directly or from an application other than TextPad) but doesn't appear to affect TextPad.

I'm using XP Pro SP3.

Oops, sorry. I missed the note that it was in the Explorer pane. I believe that is going to be a function of Windows, and not of TextPad. I am pretty sure that TextPad calls the normal Windows explorer pane.

Try this change to the registry:
To hide My Network Places from Explorer

Open Registry Editor and navigate to:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ CLSID \ {208D2C60-3AEA-1069-A2D7-08002B30309D}\ ShellFolder

Backup the key by exporting it to a REG file. See method 2 here
In the right-pane, create a new REG_DWORD value named Attributes
Double-click Attributes and set 20180000 as the Value data

If you want to undo the changes, delete the Attributes value.
You can automate the above using REG files, one to enable and another to disable.

Hello again,

I'm sorry to say, Bob, that that didn't work, either.

I have a feeling you may be right when you said this is a problem with Windows as oppose to TextPad. The group policy setting should prohibit the display of 'My Network Places' completely and there should be no way a third party application should be able to bypass security policy unless the effect of the group policy setting is purely cosmetic. Just another symptom of Microsoft's policy of building pretty operating systems with security tacked on as opposed to secure operating systems with a pretty interface.

In the light of this I suspect I will have to revert to Textpad 4.7.3 in order to keep the users away from browsing the local network. Many thanks for your help.

Mark.

mfcox wrote: In the light of this I suspect I will have to revert to Textpad 4.7.3 in order to keep the users away from browsing the local network. Many thanks for your help.

If the users are not allowed to use the local network, you should not remove the sign "Use this door to enter network", you should lock that door.
I.E. use the security settings so they can't use the network (or the parts of the network where they should not go)