Is there as way to restrict modifications by users to the NVIDIA Control Panel settings either via Group Policy or registry settings?
I don’t think you can stop users changing the settings. But if it’s that much of a concern, you can hide the option to use it …
Use the Canonical Names options to only show specific options in the Windows Control Panel. Options of how you do that are here:
If you do a little Googling, you can also add or remove various context menu settings as well:
Looks like there aren’t any GPOs governing this. Best option is to hide or disable the Shell Extensions.
Anyone tried Nirsoft’s ShellExView to manage extensions?
FYI - when you have a large pool of users (yes with the advent of the Tesla M10 card, you can indeed cram many users in a server) you need to be able to control them for your sanity.
Not directly, but as linked to above, you can use this:
"Show only specified Control Panel items"
Here’s a guide on how to use it, it will do exactly what you’re asking for:
http://www.computerstepbystep.com/show-only-specified-control-panel-items.html
Context Menus -
As for the "Right Click" Context Menus, again using my search link from above:
Delete both of these keys using a GPO:
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\background\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\00nView]
@="{1E9B04FB-F9E5-4718-997B-B8DA88302A48}"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\background\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\NvCplDesktopContext]
@="{3D1975AF-48C6-4f8e-A182-BE0E08FA86A9}"
This GPO setting will remove the Control Panel icon from the system tray:
User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Start Menu and Taskbar\Hide the Notification Area
deleted