Tips to hide installed applications and software on Windows 10, 11

Hiding applications and software will help you avoid the curiosity of other users on your computer.

Why do you need to hide software installed on your computer?

There are many reasons why you might want to image one or more software installed on your computer:

1. You are sharing a computer with friends and relatives and do not want others to know what applications you are using.
2. You've installed some games on your work computer that you don't want your boss to know about.
3. You have installed a child monitoring application on your computer, but do not want your children to know its existence.
4. Some other personal reasons…

Whatever the reason, follow the instructions below to hide installed software on your Windows 10, 11 computer. Note that the methods below only work with malicious software. build, not an app downloaded from the Microsoft Store.

Hide individual software with Registry Editor

Registry Editor is a tool that helps you change many things on your Windows computer, it also helps you hide installed software.

Since this tool directly affects the system, you need to be cautious and follow the steps outlined below correctly. To be more secure, you should back up the Registry before proceeding with the steps below.

Step 1: Press Windows + R to open the Run dialog box. Type regedit and then press Enter.

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Step 2: In Registry Editor, open the following folder:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Uninstall

For 32bit applications installed on a 64bit PC, open the folder:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Wow6432Node/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Uninstall

To open the folder more accurately, you can copy the path and paste it into the address bar of the Registry Editor.

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Step 3: In the Uninstall folder, find the software you want to hide. In this example, I will try with VLC media player. Right click on VLC media player.

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Step 4: Select New >> DWORD (32-bit) Value.

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Step 5: Name the new DWORD SystemComponent.

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Step 6: You double click on SystemComponent to edit it, in the Value data section, set it to 1. Then click OK.

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You have successfully hidden VLC media player. To confirm, open Control Panel, under Programs and Features, you will see that there is no VLC media player here anymore.

Repeat this method for the individual apps that you want to hide. To make the application reappear, open the Registry Editor and delete the newly created SystemComponent value.

Hide all installed software using Group Policy Editor

You can use the Group Policy Editor tool to hide all software from the uninstall list, preventing anyone from uninstalling your software. However, Group Policy Editor is only available on versions of Windows 10 Pro and above.

Step 1: Press Windows + R to open the Run dialog box, then enter gpedit.msc and click OK.

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Step 2: Next, navigate to the following location: User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Control Panel > Programs.

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Step 3: In the right pane, double-click the Hide 'Programs and Features' page.

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Step 4: When the window pops up, select Enabled.

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Step 5: Click Apply and OK to close the window.

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Thus, you have completely hidden the Programs and Features menu in Control Panel. When accessing this section, you will see the message 'Your system administrator has disabled Programs and Features'.

In the future, if you want to show applications again, select Not Configured in the Hide 'Program and Features' page.

Hide apps in Start Menu

Even though you already know how to hide apps in the Control Panel, other users can still easily find their shortcuts through the Start Menu (pressing the Windows button on the keyboard).

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To fix this, you can easily do as below.

Step 1: Open File Explorer and access the following folder location:

C:/ProgramData/Microsoft/Windows/Start Menu/Programs

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Step 2: In this folder, right-click on the shortcut of the application you want to hide, select Delete.

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By removing this shortcut, other users will no longer be able to find the application through the Start menu.

Conclude

Above are two simple ways to help you hide applications and software from the menu in Control Panel. Hope this tip is helpful to you. Good luck.

Jessica Tanner

Update 29 December 2021