Solved How to remove the Homegroup icon in Windows 8?

[arachnaut]

I followed the Win 7 tutorial and the extra stuff for Win 8.

It's a little more difficult now to allow administrator access to these keys (ShellFolder) but when I succeeded in changing the attribute from "b084010c" to "b094010c" to Homegroup icon was still in the Navigation pane.

I had never created a Homegroup, so I just stopped and then disabled these services:

HomeGroup Listener
HomeGroup Provider

and the icon went away.

I didn't even have to restart.

 

[azasadny]

This thread is interesting to me because my homegroup icon simply disappeared the other day and I was going to look into it this weekend. All of my network shares are present and accessible, I just don't have the homegroup icon...

 

[MIKLO]

An easy fix is, if you are not using or part of a "Home group" as I am just disable Home Group Listener, and Home Group Provider, in "Services." No reboot or logoff needed. It worked for me, but the strange thing was it just "showed up" or left anytime it wanted. Go figure!
MIKLO

 

[jetroho]

I like others do not use the Homegroup . So I did not want the icons / links on the Nav.Pane or desktop . I am going to condense what I have read to remove these icons . I use Windows 8 pro .
1st open Services.msc disable the HomeGroup Listener and Homegroup Provider services .
Next run Regedit . Navigate to these Keys for 32-bit or 64-bit Windows 8: (thanks Brink for the key id's )

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}\ShellFolder

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}\ShellFolder

Only 64-bit Windows 8:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Wow6432Node\CLSID\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}\ShellFolder

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Wow6432Node\CLSID\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}\ShellFolder

HKEY_Local_Machine\Software\Wow6432Node\Classes\CLSID\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}\ShellFolder

Right click on each Shellfolder key select Permissions , set the admin permission to full control . Click advanced and change the ownership to your Admin group from System .
Then modify the Attributes dword from b084010c to b094010c to remove the Homegroup icons .

Well that worked on two of the four computers at home and five of the twenty five computers at my business . Some of these pc's the icons would randomly appear and disappear . Windows......... So a couple weeks ago my regeditfoo was feeling strong . I found the cure for the issue on all of my pc's .

Run Regedit navigate to these Keys :

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\
NameSpace\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\
Desktop\NameSpace\{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}

Right click the {B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93} key . Select Permissions set the admin permission to full control . Click advanced , change the ownership from System to your Admin group .
Right click the key again select export . Export the key to where ever you want to save it .
Then delete the {B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93} keys .
Reboot and the Homegroup icon will be gone from the Desktop and Navigation Pane . WOOT

This has been tested for two weeks on my 29 pc's and has actually removed these icons . It also works in 8.1 preview and 8.1 RTM
Enjoy ............j

 

[polferis]

Disable Homegroup in Windows 8.1

I have done it manually:_
Open Computer and right-click on "Homegroup" icon present in Navigation pane and select “Change Home Group Settings”
Now click on "Leave the homegroup..." link given at bottom. (it will ask, and you need to confirm it)

Open Services.msc. Scroll down and disable

HomeGroup Listener
HomeGroup Provider

Using 64Bit, this got rid of them in Windows explorer also.

Thank you @davehc, it works! And is so simple!

 

[NiFu]

I tried this method and after 2 reboots, homegroup is back on my desktop

It worked for me, but the strange thing was it just "showed up" or left anytime it wanted

It's important to do it in right order:

1. Leave home group (even when you not member of a home group)
2. Disable Services "HomeGroup Listener" and "HomeGroup Provider"

So if you don't have left home group before and "Homegroup" still appear:

1. Enable Services "HomeGroup Listener" and "HomeGroup Provider"
2. Leave home group
3. Disable services "HomeGroup Listener" and "HomeGroup Provider"