GPO Template To Disable ‘Previous Versions’ Tab

Posted on 30 Jul 2008 by Clay

I wasn’t able to find this already in existence, so I made a small administrative template to disable the Previous Versions tab in Windows Explorer (this tab is used by Shadow Copy clients). Microsoft in their infinite wisdom made the shadow copy client standard starting with XP SP2 (it previously had to be installed), but it isn’t always desirable to let end users have the ability to restore data by default. This won’t uninstall the client, but does make the functionality inaccessible by enabling the following registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\NoPreviousVersionsPage

The template, with usage details, can be viewed here. With a little tweaking, it can be used as a Computer policy rather than a User policy (technically this is a preference, not a policy). If you download it, remove the .doc extension. It can then be imported into a Group Policy Object, where the “Disable Previous Versions Tab” setting can be found under User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Windows Explorer.  Once configured you can then link the GPO to the desired OU(s).

Link: Using Administrative Template Files

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

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4 Responses

  1. Stefan, on 07 Oct 2008 at 6:52 am Said:

    Beutiful!! Just what I was looking for. Many thanks!

  2. TA, on 01 Jun 2009 at 10:54 am Said:

    Hi,

    What extension does the file need to be after you remove the .doc extension ? I have trying everything but it wont seem to import for me. Your help would be greatly appreciated

  3. Clay, on 01 Jun 2009 at 1:49 pm Said:

    The extension should be “.vbs”

  4. David Pentland, on 04 Sep 2009 at 5:57 am Said:

    Great! Thanks. I have also modified the .adm file code (the extension should be .adm not .vbs btw) to allow for just disabling the ‘Restore’ button within Previous Versions Tab, which is what we wanted:

    CATEGORY “Windows Explorer”
    POLICY “Disable Previous Versions Restore Button”
    EXPLAIN !!PVRBHelp
    KEYNAME “SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer”
    VALUENAME “NoPreviousVersionsRestore”
    VALUEON NUMERIC 1
    VALUEOFF NUMERIC 0
    END POLICY

    POLICY “Disable Previous Versions Tab”
    EXPLAIN !!PVHelp
    KEYNAME “SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer”
    VALUENAME “NoPreviousVersionsPage”
    VALUEON NUMERIC 1
    VALUEOFF NUMERIC 0
    END POLICY
    END CATEGORY ;Windows Explorer

    [strings]
    PVRBHelp=…. etc
    PVHelp=… etc

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