I’ve been working today with some users who have Windows Explorer as a published application on a XenApp server. This used to be a fairly common thing but it’s been a while since I’d seen it in use. Anyway, the problem these users were having was that all of the drives were hidden in the Explorer window. Naturally, we started digging through Group Policy and profile settings to see what had hidden them. All of the usual culprits (NoDrives, NoViewOnDrives, etc.) turned up negative, so we were left with a nice long run of trial-and-error as we selectively removed policy objects and synchronised AD to see which one was causing the issue.
The problem object turned out to be the Remove My Computer icon on the desktop setting. Now, if it was a case of “does exactly what it says on the tin”, you’d be forgiven for not suspecting this policy setting at all and going for others first. However, in another back-to-basics lesson Marcus Aurelius would be proud of, if we’d read the GPO description, we might have cottoned on to it sooner…
This setting hides My Computer from the desktop and from the new Start menu. It also hides links to My Computer in the Web view of all Explorer windows, and it hides My Computer in the Explorer folder tree pane. If the user navigates into My Computer via the Up button while this setting is enabled, they view an empty My Computer folder. This setting allows administrators to restrict their users from seeing My Computer in the shell namespace, allowing them to present their users with a simpler desktop environment. If you enable this setting, My Computer is hidden on the desktop, the new Start menu, the Explorer folder tree pane, and the Explorer Web views. If the user manages to navigate to My Computer, the folder will be empty. If you disable this setting, My Computer is displayed as usual, appearing as normal on the desktop, Start menu, folder tree pane, and Web views, unless restricted by another setting. If you do not configure this setting, the default is to display My Computer as usual. Note: Hiding My Computer and its contents does not hide the contents of the child folders of My Computer. For example, if the users navigate into one of their hard drives, they see all of their folders and files there, even if this setting is enabled.
So there it is. If you have users with a published version of Windows Explorer and they are getting an empty window devoid of drives, see if this object is enabled. It lives in User Configuration | Administrative Templates | Desktop, in case you have need to track it down.
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