Hi folks. In XP, we allowed the ODBC Data Sources to be shown in the Control Panel main page (as well as in Admiministrative Tools). We did this by tweaking the registry with a GPo (I believe it was the tweaking the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\don’t load etc). As users are familiar with the ODBC in this area, I would like to keep this in Windows 7, but I am unable to find a way to perform this. There doesn't appear to be an odbccp32.cpl file anymore, but just the odbcad32.exe? I also can't see a way to add this to the control panel... Now, yes, we CAN re-educate the users and get them to run the exe (through various methods including providing a shortcut somewhere on the start menu etc), but before doing so I would really like to know if it is possible to put it in the control panel main page. Thanks!

Check the following group policies: User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Control Panel\Hide specified Control Panel items User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Control Panel\Show only specified Control Panel items See http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee617167(WS.10).aspx for more information. BTW, the command to launch the applet is: CONTROL Odbccp32.cpl. Hope this helps.

Hi Oliver. The GPO section will allow me show MOST controls. However, I cannot get it to show the ODBC Control Panel. Where others will show by using the display name ("Mouse", "Ease of Access Center", etc), I cannot get the ODBC icon to show using any of the following entries: Data Sources (ODBC) control odbccp32.cpl odbccp32.dll ODBC Data Source Administrator ODBC I cannot find any reference to what the ODBC (or it's canonical name) would be. Thanks.

Anyone with any other ideas? Thanks.

Did you find anything out on this? I'm looking to do the same (under 2008 R2 instead of Windows 7).

No luck, haven't really returned to it. I know it should be possible as ODBC can be seen in the control panel root window (on a basic installation with no GPo interfering). If I can hide all items, then add one in one by one, then it should be possible with this. I just need to know the correct name...