Overview – Block Users from Installing a Program in Windows
It appears that you are a system administrator in an organization searching for various methods to stop users from installing apps in Windows, or you’re a parent who wants to prevent your child from spending too much time playing online games by stopping programs from being installed on Windows.
Just Kidding! Let’s get back to the topic.
To disable the Program Installation in Windows all we’ve to do is to block/disable the Windows Package Installer from the device. Once the Package Installer in Windows is restricted to install programs, the Windows will have no other modules to install any application.
By the end of this article, you’ll be able to stop users from installing in Windows:
Method 1: Using Windows Settings
Step 1: Open the Windows Settings from the Start Menu or press the “Windows Key + I” Key Combination.
Step 2: Select the “Apps” option from the left sidebar and click the “Apps and Features” button.
Step 3: Select the “Microsoft only (Recommended)” option from the dropdown menu.
Method 2: Using Group Policy (gpedit.msc)
Note: If you frequently keep making changes to your device’s group policy configuration, then it’s recommended to backup Group Policy on your device to recover data in case of a data loss.
Step 1: Open the Local Group Policy from the Start Menu or press the “Windows Key + R” Key Combination to open Windows Run, type “gpedit.msc”, and press the enter key.
Step 2: Navigate to the following file path:
Computer Configuration/Administrative Templates/Windows Components/Windows Installer and you’ll find the “Prohibit User Installs” policy.
Step 3: Double-click the “Probihit User Install” and select the “Enabled” option.
Step 4: Restart your computer to refresh group policy and GPOs to make changes take effect properly.
Note: If you do not configure this policy setting, or if the policy setting is enabled and “Allow User Installs” is selected, the installer allows and makes use of products that are installed per user and products that are installed per computer. If the installer finds a per-user install of an application, this hides a per-computer installation of that same product.
If you enable this policy setting and “Hide User Installs” is selected, the installer ignores per-user applications. This causes a per-computer installed application to be visible to users, even if those users have a per-user install of the product registered in their user profile.
Method 3: Using Registry Editor (regedit)
Step 1: Open the Registry Editor from the Start Menu or press the “Windows Key + R” Key Combination, type “regedit”, and press the enter key.
Step 2: Navigate to the following file path:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes\Msi.Package\DefaultIcon.
Step 3: Double click the Default Key and change the value data from “C:\Windows\System32\msiexec.exe,0” to “C:\Windows\System32\msiexec.exe,1” and press the “OK” button to disable Windows Package Installer.
Step 4: Restart your computer to make changes take effect properly.
Note: If you frequently keep making changes to your device’s group policy configuration, then it’s recommended to enable automatic Registry Backup on your device to recover data in case of a data loss.
FAQs Related to Blocking Program Installation in Windows
Does blocking the program installation in Windows affect downloading?
No, blocking a program installation in Windows doesn’t affect downloading files, apps, etc in Windows. Once the program installation is blocked in Windows, the other functions will continue to perform appropriately. You can download and listen to audio, watch videos, view images, PDFs, and other files as you normally do.
Conclusion
We’ve covered how to stop the users from installing programs in Windows using Local Group Policy Editor and Registry Editor.
We’re effectively restricting the source of program installation, which is the Windows Installer, in order to prevent software from installing in Windows. Because the Windows Installer has been disabled, the program will not be able to get installed.
In the nutshell, using the methods above, we can download the setup of applications, but cannot install them as the Windows Installer is blocked.
Further, customize your device’s configuration by following the related articles below.
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