Remove Program from Start Menu using Group Policy

How to Remove Program from Start Menu using Group Policy

In previous posts, we have learned what is group policy and how to apply group policy in Windows Server 2012 R2. In this post, we would learn the steps to remove program from start menu using Group Policy in Windows Server 2012 R2. Through this policy, we can remove all the icons from the start menu but the Start screen will show icons that are pinned to Start menu.

Group Policy to  “Remove Program from  Start Menu” in Windows Server 2012 R2

“Remove Program from Start Menu” is a user policy. So, we’ll create an Organizational Unit in Active Directory Users and Computers and add users in that OU. Then, through GPMC we will link a GPO with this OU so that policy will be applied to the users added in the OU.

1. Open Active Directory Users and Computers and create an Organizational Unit and add users in it. In this scenario, we have created an OU naming Sales and added two users in it naming TU1 & TU2. We would disable Remove Program from Start Menu using Group Policy for these two users. 

2. Open Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) and right click on OU with which we have to link a policy. Click on “Create a GPO in this domain, and link it here.” to create a new Group policy object and link it with Sales OU.

3. In “New GPO” console enter the name of a group policy object and click on OK. We have named the GPO “Remove programs from start menu” in this example. You can define any other name as per your preference.

4. Right click on the Group Policy Object which we have created (Remove programs from start menu) and click on Edit. A new GPO is like a blank template and we have to edit the GPO settings to enable the policy.

5. “Removing All Programs list from the Start Menu” is a User policy. On Group Policy Management Editor under User Configuration expand Policies and then expand Administrative Templates. Under Administrative Templates expand Start Menu and Taskbar and search for “Remove all Programs list from the Start Menu”, double-click on it to edit the policy settings.

6. On the console of “Remove all Programs list from the Start Menu” policy select Enabled to enable the policy. Details of this policy is given under “Help’. You can add comments also if required for your reference and click on OK. Don’t get confused  between enabling policy and disabling. Enabling the policy will remove the All Programs list from the Start Menu whereas disabling will show all programs list in start menu.

7. After enabling the policy settings, we can verify that our policy is linked with the OU (Sales) through GPMC console.

8. To verify that our policy of “Remove all Programs list from the Start Menu” is working, login with the credentials of a user who is added in the OU (Sales). Click on Start button and then click on down arrow to validate that our policy of “Removing all Programs from Start Menu” is working properly.