Favorites Menu Is Still Displayed After Being Disabled with a System Policy (218633)

IMPORTANT: This article contains information about modifying the registry. Before you modify the registry, make sure to back it up and make sure that you understand how to restore the registry if a problem occurs. For information about how to back up, restore, and edit the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

256986 Description of the Microsoft Windows Registry

SYMPTOMS

After you use System Policy Editor to create a policy to hide the Favorites menu by clicking to select the Remove Favorites from Start Menu check box, the Favorites menu still appears after rebooting. However, other parts of this policy may function properly.

CAUSE

This problem occurs because System Policy Editor updates the following incorrect registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies

RESOLUTION

WARNING: If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

To work around this problem:

Use Registry Editor to view the following registry key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
Create a new DWORD value named NoFavoritesMenu with a value of 1.
Restart your computer.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.