Today, we will see how to disable the Reset Internet Explorer Settings button and prevent users from resetting Internet Explorer Settings in Windows 8 using Registry and Group Policy Editors. In order to solve multiple issues, you are faced with Internet Explorer (IE), resetting the IE settings is the most common and fruitful step taken by users.
Resetting IE makes a factory reset of the browser by erasing browsing history, removing add-ons, and nullify every change you’ve made to IE’s settings since first use.
However, if you’re a system administrator where you have to control many user systems from a single machine, and if you’ve applied some special configuration for IE, you may do not want to let users resetting IE.
In such a scenario, you have to make changes to the Group Policy settings of the user’s machine so that they do not get the option to Reset. Check out the below screenshot to get an idea of what I am saying:
Disable Reset Internet Explorer Settings
Now here are the two ways using which you can disable the Reset Internet Explorer settings button:
Using Group Policy
1. In Windows Pro & Enterprise Editions, press Windows Key + R combination, type put gpedit.msc in Run dialog box and hit Enter to open the Local Group Policy Editor.
2. In the left pane, navigate here:
Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Internet Explorer -> Internet Control Panel -> Advanced Page
3. In the right pane, look for the Setting named Do not allow resetting Internet Explorer settings which is set to Not Configured by default.
Double click on this setting to get this:
4. In the above window, first click Enabled and then click Apply followed by OK.
You may now close Local Group Policy Editor and check the Internet Explorer settings of user’s machine, the Reset option in Internet Properties window should be grayed out.
Using Registry Editor
1. Press Windows Key + R combination, type put regedit in Run dialog box and hit Enter to open the Registry Editor.
2. Navigate here:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft
3. In the left pane of the above-shown window, right-click Microsoft registry key and select New -> Key. Name this sub-key so created as Internet Explorer. Similarly, create yet another sub-key to Internet Explorer and name it Control Panel.
Now come to the right pane of the Control Panel key such that registry location becomes:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Control Panel
In the blank space, right click and select New -> DWORD Value.
Name this newly created DWORD as DisableRIED. Double click on the same DWORD to get this:
4. In the above-shown box, put the Value data as 1. Click OK. In this way, you have blocked users to reset IE settings, so you can close Registry Editor and go to Desktop if you like.
That’s it!
