Add an easy setting to hide drives in pool from Explorer.

[Pseudonymity]

It would be great if there was an easy option to hide drives that have been enrolled in a pool from the explorer view.
It shouldn't be too complicated of a feature, as all it takes is a registry tweak.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
ADD DWORD named NoDrives
SET Value to (A Decimal number comprised of the following, adding values together to get the desired effect)

A: 1
B: 2
C: 4
D: 8
E: 16
F: 32
G: 64
H: 128
I: 256
J: 512
K: 1024
L: 2048
M: 4096
N: 8192
O: 16384
P: 32768
Q: 65536
R: 131072
S: 262144
T: 524288
U: 1048576
V: 2097152
W: 4194304
X: 8388608
Y: 16777216
Z: 33554432
ALL: 67108863

For example, If you wanted to hide drives W, X, Y, Z. The value would be 62914560. It's basically a value consisting of seven bytes, with each bit acting as a toggle to whether that drive letter should show in explorer.

0011 1100 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
0*ZY XWVU TSRQ PONM LKJI HGFE DCBA

When set, Explorer just needs restarting and the setting takes effect. The drive is still accessible by its path like normal by other applications, explorer will just not display the clutter of discs that make up your pool.

[Shane]

You can use Windows' Disk Management to remove (or change) a drive's associated letter entirely: open WDM, right-click the drive, choose "Change Drive Letter and Paths".

Thanks for the registry tip though!

[CityguyUSA]

There's an option under Manage Pool to turn off / on drive letters.

 

Sorry, I thought this did all disks in the pool but it's just the pools main letter.

I swore somewhere I came across this capability.  I will update if I find it.

Edited April 27 by CityguyUSA
Mistake in info

[Christopher (Drashna)]

THere isn't any such option, currently.  Just for the pool itself and doing it manually for the pooled disks. 

Also, when removing the drive letters, if you run into issues with the drives showing up after rebooting when doing this, there is a known issue with Windows.  Fixing it is relatively simple: 
https://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_F3540