Disabling Windows 7 Fast user switch via GPO

Computer Configuration -> Policies -> Administrative Templates -> System -> Logon -> Hide Entry Points for Fast User Switching

A pic from my earlier post

CAGdorf: is this Windows 2003 DC GPO??

Hi

Where you can check how to disable the fast user swtich

http://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/how-to-enable-disable-fast-user-switching-in-windows-xp-and-windows-vista/

Or

http://www.askvg.com/how-to-disable-switch-user-option-in-windows-vista-and-7

You can use GPO, or run a script on Windows 7 workstations

Hope this can Help

Jail

I am using a Windows 2008 R2 server to manage, so it loads the ADM into 2003. You can do the same thing using Vista or Win 7 to manage if you have gpmc installed. Our DCS are 2003.

...I believe you can also download the ADMX from http://download.microsoft.com/.

And what do you plan to do with ADMX on 2003 DC???

it handles it all behind the scenes, modifying the GPO. That's been my experience. I have been using it since Vista was in RC to set policies on our Vista machines. Now I am having to set different policies for w7.

Open them in Notepad, take a screenshot and use the resulting image as a desktop background.

Nice idea... because Windows 2003 doesn't support ADMX format.
Even on 2008 ADMX is not enough because you need paired ADML file.

Well, the changes that you guys are telling me "Computer Configuration -> Policies -> Administrative Templates -> System -> Logon -> Hide Entry Points for Fast User Switching" that is availiable on the local PC but not the server's domain GPO. but what i want is a way to do it over GPO, so i dont have to do it on each indidual PC...

attached is a picture of what i see on the GPO in the server.

@gtworek
Yeah, I'm a little slow today - or rather, too fast, I might have missed a detail or two. ;)

qt, please do.

comptx, try using gpmc on the Windows 7 box to manage your group policy  for the domain.

You should create file with:

CLASS MACHINE
CATEGORY "Custom policies"
POLICY "Windows 7 Fast User Switching"
KEYNAME "SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System"
VALUENAME "HideFastUserSwitching "
VALUEON NUMERIC 1
VALUEOFF NUMERIC 0
END POLICY
END CATEGORY

save it with ADM file extension (not TXT!) in your DC's %SystemRoot%\Inf folder then add your new template to your GPO.
You can find some useful info at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/225087 and http://thelazyadmin.com/blogs/thelazyadmin/archive/2005/07/05/Creating-Custom-ADM-Templates.aspx and some other places...

Isnt it only for the local one? i dont see a way to load the one from my domain in there.

When im adding the custom adm file i get the following error.

Do you have "CATEGORY" keyword in your file? The error message is about typo in this word...

I copy/pasted what you posted into the file

from the file:

CLASS MACHINE
CATEGORY "Custom policies"
POLICY "Windows 7 Fast User Switching"
KEYNAME "SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System"
VALUENAME "HideFastUserSwitching "
VALUEON NUMERIC 1
VALUEOFF NUMERIC 0
END POLICY
END CATEGORY

Well that worked. Looked exactly the same as it was, not sure what could be the invisible difference...

Very nice, its working instantly on all my Windows 7 pc's right now. Thank you for your excelent help qt, and all others that also quickly contributed.