Method 1: Group Policy
Step 1: Use the Win+R shortcut to launch the ”Run” box.
Step 2: In the run box type ”gpedit.msc”, you will get a UAC prompt, select the ”Yes” option.
Step 3: Expand the line named ”User Configuration” then perform the same action to ”Administrative Templates”, then select ”System”.
Step 4: Open the policy named, ”Don’t run specific Windows applications”.
Step 5: Set the policy to ”Enabled”, continue by selecting the ”Show” option.
Step 6: Add the programs you would like to prevent the user from running to the ”List of disallowed applications”. Use the name of the application launching the file such as ”bittorent.exe”, ”itunes.exe”, ”Chrome.exe”, etc.
If you ever wish to disable this policy to let the applications run again. Simply follow steps 1-4 and where you set the policy to ”Enabled”, change that to ”Disabled”.
Method 2: Registry Edit
Step 1: Use the Win+R shortcut to launch the ”Run” box.
Step 2: In the run box type ”Regedit”, you will get a UAC prompt, select the ”Yes” option.
Step 3: In the Registry Editor, navigate through the following path: HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionPoliciesExplorer or HKEY_CURRENT_USER–>Software–>Microsoft–>Windows–>CurrentVersion–>Policies–>Explorer
Step 4: Right-click and create a new 32bit value called ”DisallowRun” with a set value data of 1
Step 5: Right-click on Explorer and create a new key named ”DisallowRun”.
Step 6: Right-click and hover over Create add a string value set to the value of, Value data being the application you want to block. (e.g. wannacry.exe)
When the application attempts to run it will produce an error with the following message:
”This operation has been canceled due to restrictions in effect on this computer, Please contact your system administrator.”
To revert these functions follow the path to the created key/values and delete them or alter the DisallowRun value to 0.
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