Comments for How can I disable the games that come with Windows?

Comment from Kerly on 2008-07-23

2008-07-23T21:04:22Z

thanks for helping me to delete freecell and spider from my pc. I´ve been trying to do that by control panel, but i just got rid of windows games with your tips.

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A comment on: How can I disable the games that come with Windows?

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Comment from Derreck on 2008-04-13

2008-04-14T03:46:23Z

hi everyone, I'm having problem in my network due to
uncontrollable network games. I already disabled add/remove features to all the computers so that they have no way that they can install any applications nor games in their corresponding PC's, but the problem here is that they can still play games (i.e. DOTA-WatCraft) in their machine if they copied the installed games from other computer. they just copied the whole installed folder and paste it in their PC. Is there any other way that I can resolved this. Any help and advice would be highly appreciated. Thanks and more power.

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A comment on: How can I disable the games that come with Windows?

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Comment from Rajeev on 2007-10-23

2007-10-23T07:29:01Z

If there are programs that does application blocking(like BrowseControl), you can probably block regedit.exe or regedt32.exe to block any Registry hacking.

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A comment on: How can I disable the games that come with Windows?

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Comment from Tim on 2007-09-20

2007-09-20T14:15:34Z

I have the same problem and I found a program at http://www.browsecontrol.com/index.htm that took care of it. Like you I needed a way to "consistently" block these programs and prevent them from coming back on 100s of PCs with out having to go to each and every device (not feasible). This program has a management console where you can "push" out the restrictions remotely. Moreover, you can disable jump drives and CDROM access and Internet sites or access all together. Additionally, this uses checksum so even if they rename a file it will not run. Check it out.

As far as Reg hacks, I wasn't able to find anything that worked for what I wanted. What was posted previously looks good but some of the more talented users could pull games from the Internet or simply from a floppy. MSHEARTS and FREECELL are simple EXEs and don't require anything to run.

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A comment on: How can I disable the games that come with Windows?

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Comment from Tejas Raval on 2007-07-16

2007-07-16T18:34:36Z

System administrators are often asked to remove games such as FreeCell or Pinball from Windows machines. Sometimes deleting the executables and their shortcuts is not as easy as you might think; Windows will restrict you from deleting them.

To remove these components you will need to use the sysocmgr.exe utility (available at C:\WINDOWS\system32), which is used to add or remove Windows components. This utility uses a txt file that can be scripted.

Here is an example of how you can use this utility to remove the Pinball game from a Windows XP machine:

Create a text file to say "remove.txt" with the following things written in it:

[Components]
Pinball = off

Now save this file, for instance, on your C drive.

Go to command line and enter following command:
sysocmgr /i:C:\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386\sysoc.inf /u:C:\remove.txt /q
The following is the description of the switches which can be been used with the above command:

/i The location of the .inf file for sysocmgr.exe. This is normally in the System32 directory or at "C:\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386"

/r Suppresses a reboot (in case if a reboot is needed on removal of specific components).

/q Runs the utility in quiet mode to suppress prompts.

/u Specifies the location of the .txt file.

/w Prompts the user to reboot instead of rebooting automatically (in case if a reboot is needed on removal of specific components).

Users may use any of the switches based on their requirement. After the execution of this command you will find that the Pinball game from your system has been removed.

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A comment on: How can I disable the games that come with Windows?

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Comment from Phil on 2006-12-15

2006-12-15T22:13:21Z

Fair enough, so why is it that pinball.exe re-appears in my NT folder everytime I delete it, and is not listed as a Windows component?

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A comment on: How can I disable the games that come with Windows?

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Comment from jh on 2006-05-31

2006-05-31T14:56:22Z

How do I do this on 400+ machines? I don't want to run Add/Remove programs that many times. I like the idea of disabling them in the registry. Any ideas on how to do it there?

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A comment on: How can I disable the games that come with Windows?

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Comment from bijo on 2005-11-21

2005-11-21T12:29:34Z

your method of deleting games is not GOOOOOD.. some one can take the games from outside.. for example. sol.exe can be taken from outside throu' mail.. and they can simply play the game.. is there any possible way to avoid ppl playing the games in a computer..

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A comment on: How can I disable the games that come with Windows?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
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