How to Disable/Enable Internet Options Tabs in IE

Helps stop untrained users from tweaking

As an IT guy, I always encounter problems when untrained users tweak their Internet connection settings.  They always make a mistake somewhere and sometimes the solution is to just keep them away from theInternet Optionsdialog box altogether.

I have worked at many companies thathide the Internet Options tab in Internet Explorerto discourage users from changing the options, which makes sense since network admins are the only ones who are supposed to access these options.

In a controlled environment, companies usually allow only one type of browser like Internet Explorer and those companies usually don’t allow their employees to change the Internet Options like default the homepage and proxy server.

Below is a typical Internet Options window:

There are several ways to disable the Internet Options tabs in IE and I’ll explain the different methods in this post. The first method uses Group Policy, but will only work if you have the Pro or Ultimate versions of Windows. If you are running Home or Home Premium, then skip down to the registry section.

Disable Internet Options in IE via Group Policy

To disable any tab in the Internet Options window, follow these steps below:

Step 1: Click Start and typeGPEDIT.MSCin the search bar and hit enter to launch the Group Policy editor window.

Step 2: In the Local Group Policy editor window expandUser Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Internet Explorerthen click onInternet Control Panel.

Step 3: On the right pane of the window, double click on the item you want to disable. For example, to disable theAdvancedtab, double click onDisable the Advanced pageoption.

Step 4: In the properties window, click on theEnabledoption and clickOK. The Advanced tab in the Internet Options window will now be disabled and removed.

Step 5: Follow the previous steps to disable other items in the Internet Options window. To enable items, just select theNot Configured option in the properties window and clickOK.

There you have it!  For less savvy computer users who don’t know about GPEDIT, it should discourage them from changing the advanced settings in IE.

Disable IE Options via Registry Editor

The second way to disable tabs in IE options is to use the registry editor. This is a bit more complicated, but is the only option if you can’t access group policy editor.

You can open the registry editor by clicking on Start and typing inregedit. Once there, navigate to the following key:

Note that if you want to disable this option for all users on the PC, navigate to the same key, but under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.

If there isn’t already a key calledInternet Explorerunder Microsoft, you’ll have to create it manually. Just right-click onMicrosoftand chooseNew–Key. At this point, there are two options. If you want to disable the entire Internet Options dialog, you can create another key under Internet Explorer calledRestrictions.

Lastly, you’ll create a newDWORDvalue in the right-pane insideRestrictionscalledNoBrowserOptions. Give that a value of 1 and restart Internet Explorer. If you try to go to Internet Options, it will give you an error message.

If you don’t want to disable the whole dialog, but instead just a few of the tabs, then you should create a new key calledControl Panelunder Microsoft instead of Restrictions. Inside of that, you’ll create DWORD entries that correspond to the tabs:

As you can see above, I created theControl Panelkey underInternet Explorerand then created aDWORDentry in the right-pane calledAdvancedTabwith a decimal value of 1. This removed just the advanced tab from the IE options window.

Hopefully, these methods will allow you to gain more control over Internet Explorer advanced settings in your environment. If you’re having issues, feel free to comment and I’ll try to help. Enjoy!

Founder of Help Desk Geek and managing editor. He began blogging in 2007 and quit his job in 2010 to blog full-time. He has over 15 years of industry experience in IT and holds several technical certifications.Read Aseem’s Full Bio

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