Undesired Registry setting being added by appstream

Question

We have noticed that a registry setting is being added to the images on our fleet that is not present on our template.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
DWORD HubMode
Value 1

This effectively removes the Quick Access item from the Navigation pane in File explorer. Our Image doesn't even have the HubMode dword defined.  I tried adding it with Value = 0 but again, it shows up as Value = 1 after image is deployed on fleet.

The template appstream image machine name  and the user appstream machine names all reside in the same OU with same GPO settings.  I don't believe this to be something added from our side.  I suspect appstream image deployment is adding something in the same way they hide local user drives etc so they definitely add items to the image.

I have worked around the problem so far by forcing the registry setting for HubMode to 0 in the ou's GPO but this is not a good way to manage machines.  How do we see or change the special sauce they are adding between creating our image and deploying the machines to users?  They must be forcing some local policy or registry settings.

Answer

Hello customer,

The default policies that are applied in AppStream environments hides Quick Access from this pane. I would like to mention that Quick Access is intentionally not shown because it gives quick links to directories like Desktop, Documents, Downloads and Pictures. These directories do not persist between AppStream sessions and therefore in order to discourage users from saving files to the aforementioned directories, Quick Access is hidden. Instead users are encouraged to save files to persistent storage such as Home Folder, Google Drive or OneDrive [1].

As a workaround you can use session script to edit the HubMode registry key to 0. Below are high level steps. 
1. Create a powershell to add the reg key HubMode to 0.
```
REG ADD HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer /v HubMode /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f
```
2. Create a Session Script config file and use above Powershell file to make the DWORD as 0

[+] https://docs.aws.amazon.com/appstream2/latest/developerguide/use-session-scripts.html#using-powershell-files-with-session-scripts

[+] https://docs.aws.amazon.com/appstream2/latest/developerguide/use-session-scripts.html#create-specify-session-scripts
	
3. You can now create a new image with this session script in image builder and the DWORD will be added at streaming instance launch.

Thank you.

Undesired Registry setting being added by appstream

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