Windows 7 - Homegroup link

Windows 7 build 7057 64bit.

Hey guys!

How do i remove the stupid homegroup AND NETWORK AND LIBRARY links that are present on the left side when i open "my computer"?

thanks!

starhannes Hello welcome. You can click on organize ( top left corner) of my computer then select layout then navigation pane. this will remove your anoyance.
Hope this helps..

hey buddy! thanks for your quick reply.. thing is i like the navigation because of FAVOURITES.. :S i just find HOMEGROUP and networks a waste of space :S

anyway to keep navigation but remove those?

starhannes See what you mean now. Sorry can't help with that. Maybe a reg tweek or some such thing. Good luck with that. Hope you have a good stay here on SevenForums. lm

Hello Starhannes.

Try this:

Right click on the empty space of the Navigation Pane and choose "Show all folders"

Now click on the arrow next to the Desktop Icon and it will collapse.

I guess this is what you need

Navigation Pane - Show All Folders

wow! That looks nice and clean. I like that. thanks limneos for your input.

I had 20 Windows 7 Tweaks & Tips – Every Secret Uncovered to Date what happen to it MaximumPC

That last link worked well to give me more control over what was shown in the sidebar, but I still can't get rid of the homegroup icon on the desktop.

I've tried the oft-circulated tip to disable both homegroup services in the services.msc, but MS seems to have disabled the connection between the services and the icon, so desperate are they for us to use the new feature whether we want it or not. It can't be removed from the Desktop icons settings either, we can disable everything else on the desktop, including far more useful icons.

The libraries and the homegroup are just stuck there, permanently, on this RTM system with whatever updates have been pushed to date. Uck... this seems like such a return to typical microsofty behavior of forcing unwanted features, after all the gains in offering fine-grained control of what features I do and don't use.

Sorry for the rant, I'm hoping a bump might get some new information, and maybe that someone who has control of this might fix it in an update.

re-boot in safe mode (w/o networking) and delete the desktop icon

just a guess

ken

I did finally find a way to get rid of the Desktop icons for Homegroup and libraries. the following hack is kinda brutal, a little more research is needed to refine it, but here it is, raw and risky:

using trusty old regedit, navigate to:

HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Explorer/Desktop/Namespace

Back up this tree for safekeeping. All of the entries that used to be human readable in earlier versions have been turned into gibberish. None the less, I simply deleted everything I could from under this tree (two entires refused to die). F5 refreshed the desktop. Homegroup and Libraries are gone.

This is a dumb way to do things but it works. Later I would like to figure out which key was the magic that got rid of Homegroup. I actually use the new Libraries feature quite extensively, and would like that back. But I just created a short cut, anyways. Some other hack I've forgotten takes away the indicator arrow for shortcuts, and it looks factory anyways.

No luck on figuring any more fine grained control of the sidebar yet. The desktop was easy, it's really just an old XP/vista hack. sidebar is all new, so harder to track down.

NOTE: better information on how to handle this is in my later post within this thread, use those directions, not these!