How to remove a homegroup without consequences

Each PC user was confronted with unscheduled updates to the Windows operating system, which makes some corrections to the installed software. In this article, we will talk about one of the Microsoft products that may appear on your desktop after the next update, namely, the home group.

It is also worth noting that it can be initially installed on your PC, long before the updates. The methods described below will help you both remove the home group and disable all its functions in Windows Explorer.

Introduction

First we need to find out what we are trying to remove and why we need it. Let’s answer the questions that interest us.

Homegroup is a feature of Windows, which allows you to combine several PCs and other devices into one network. It is mainly used in offices, educational institutions, where it is necessary to have access to the same files on different devices. Connected equipment to the home group does not require its user to enter a username and password each time when using shared files on this network.

You cannot delete a homegroup shortcut using standard methods, but you can remove files inside this system. It should be remembered that after deleting one of the files on one of the connected devices on this network, it will also disappear from the other devices. But this is not about that. Let's find out how to remove a homegroup from the desktop.

Registry Editor

Using the registry editor built into the operating system, you can easily delete your home group. How to open this editor, you ask. To do this, do the following:

1. Press the key combination Win + R and in the appeared window "Run" enter regedit, then click OK.
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. On the left you will see folders. You need to go the following path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE>SOFTWARE>Microsoft>Windows>CurrentVersion>



Explorer> Desktop>NameSpace
   
   
   
   .
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. Go to the NameSpace folder. Here, find the folder B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93 and right-click on it. In the menu that appears, click "Delete."
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Close the registry editor and go to the desktop. Right-click on any empty space and select update.

After performing all of the above actions, the home group icon will disappear from the desktop. However, it will not stop functioning. Let's figure out how to limit its work in the operating system.

Deactivate Services

How to delete a home group, we have already figured out. However, after removing the shortcut from the desktop, the services of this network will not be disconnected. In order for them to stop working, perform the following operations:

1. In the Start Search menu, enter the word Services.
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Then from the list provided, open "Homegroup provider." Next, select "Stop the service."
   
   
   
   
   
   

Then you need to make some settings in the service so that it does not open automatically when Windows starts. To do this, you need to do the following:

1. Double-click on the "Homegroup provider", after which a small window will appear.
2. Find the "Startup Type" item and select the "Disabled" option.
3. Then click "Apply" and OK.
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Now in the Services tab, find the Home Group Listener section.
5. Double-click on it and in the "Startup Type" select the "Disabled" function. Then click "Apply" and OK.
   
   
   
   
   
   

To make sure that all the actions lead us to the right result, open Windows Explorer. The homegroup icon should no longer be there. Having done all these steps to disable services, you will not slightly increase the performance of your computer. If someday you need to enable the functions of this network, then do the reverse.

How to remove an icon in Explorer

If you don’t want to disable the functions of the home group services, but just want to get rid of the icon in Windows Explorer, then for this you need to contact the registry editor again:

1. Click on "Start" and in the search bar write regedit.
2. In the window that appears, go this way: " HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93\ShellFolder
   
   
   
   ".

You must have extended privileges to remove the homegroup as an administrator. To do this, we do the following operations:

1. Right-click on the ShellFolder folder and select "Resolution" in the menu that appears.
2. Select the "Administrators" option and opposite the "Full Control" item, check the "Allow" box. Click "Apply" and OK.
3. Return to the ShellFolder folder. In the "Name" column, select the Attributes line and double-click on it.
4. In the window that appears, find the "Values" section and replace it with b094010c. Confirm your actions by clicking on the OK button.

Restart your computer to apply the current settings.

Conclusion

In this article, we answered many questions: what is the home windows group, how to remove it from the desktop, and not only. Now you know for what purposes this function is used and what tasks it performs.