While disabling or blocking Settings is a great way to prevent others from making changes to your PC, you may want to block or disable only specific pages instead of the entire Settings app. For example, you might want to stop or turn off background, lock screen, and themes pages to prevent others from changing your current screen background, lock screen background, and desktop themes, respectively.
Luckily, there are ways to block or disable specific pages in the Settings app. You can use Group Policy, Windows Registry, or a third-party tool called Win 10 Settings Blocker to block specific Settings app pages in Windows 10.
Method 1
Turn off or block specific pages in the Settings app.
This method uses Group Policy to block pages of the Settings app. Since Group Policy is not included in the Home edition, please refer to Method 2 or 3 of this guide to do the same with Windows Registry or a third-party tool.
Step 1: Open the Group Policy Editor by typing its name in the Start/taskbar search field and pressing Enter.
Step 2: In the Local Group Policy window, navigate the User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Control Panel. On the right side, look for the Settings page visibility policy—double-click on it to open its properties window.
Step 3: Select the Enable option. In the Settings page display box, enter the URL of the page you want to hide. You can find URLs for all pages on this official page.
For example, if you need to hide the Background page (Settings> Personalization> Background), you need to enter Hide: personalization-background.
If you want to hide multiple pages, use a semicolon (;) in between the two URLs. For example, to hide the desktop and lock screens, we need to type hide: personalization-background; lock screen in the Show settings page box and then click the Apply button.
Method 2
Hide specific pages of Settings via Registry
Step 1: In the Start/taskbar search field, type Regedit and then press the Enter key.
Step 2:Navigate to the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER Software Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion Policies Explorer
Step 3: On the right side, right-click on an empty spot, click New, click String Value, and then name it SettingsPageVisibility.
Step 4: Finally, double-click on SettingsPageVisibility and enter the URL of the page you want to hide with the prefix “Hide:” (without the quotes). You can find URLs for all of the pages on this page.
For example, if you need to hide the Background page (Settings> Personalization> Background), you need to enter Hide: personalization-background.
To hide multiple pages, separate URLs with a semicolon (;). For example, type hide: personalization-background, lock screen in the Value data box. Click OK.
Method 3
Hide the Settings app page using Settings Blocker
There is a third-party utility that blocks specific pages of the Settings app for those looking for ease. Win 10 Settings Blocker is a free little tool designed to help you secure the entire Settings app or specific pages of the Settings app.
