Remove The Customize Tab From Folders

Every folder on the Windows platform (excluding OS drives), has a Customize tab, whereby you can change It's appearance by selecting a file or Icon of your choice, and applying It thereafter. Moreover, you can also optimize It, by choosing any one of the five built-In templates. Given you can do this, so too can everyone else who has physical access to your PC. As such, In this tutorial, I will show you how to completely remove the Customize tab for all folders.


Before I make a start, here's what I'm referring to. Upon right-clicking a folder and selecting Properties > Customize (Tab), the above-mentioned options are available as pictured below.

Personally, I predominantly use the Change Icon option by selecting different Icons for various folders, for the purpose of dedicating them to specific tasks. This allows me to Instantly Identify each folder. If you're anything like myself, Inclusive of using the other options, you'd want your changes to remain as Is.

To prevent anyone from tampering with your customizations, I will demonstrate how to remove the Customize tab In It's entirety. This will be achieved by editing the Windows Registry. So without further ado, let's rip Into this tutorial.

Step One:
To access the Windows Registry Editor, open the Run menu, enter regedit and hit OK.

Step Two:
Next, navigate to the following directory.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

Then on the right pane, right-click and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value as Illustrated below.

Step Three:
Name the Value (that you just created above) as NoCustomizeThisFolder.

Step Four:
Double-click NoCustomizeThisFolder and In the Value data field, enter a value of 1. Hit OK to finalize the process.

Step Five:
The Customize tab Is now removed. If you find It's still there, simply reboot your PC. Here's the folder properties before applying the tweak. The Customize tab Is still available.

Last Step:
And here's the result after the tweak. As you can see, the Customize tab Is completely removed.

Final Thoughts:
Even If you've never worked with the Windows Registry, this Is an extremely simple process that can be performed by just about any user. That said, be very careful with the Registry. It Is a critical part of the operating system, hence any Incorrect edits, can cause significant system Instability and/or loss of functionality.

To reverse the change and have the Customize tab as per It's default state, go back to Step Four above. In the Value data field, enter a value of 0, and hit OK.