How do you set control panel settings readonly?

[Phil Berry]

Hi,

I wish to set the control panel settings so that they always show
a list, not large icons. I find it is much easier to find things now
that NT lists things in alphabetical order. I also dislike looking
at big pictures: I know what a modem looks like, so why should I
have a picture of one when the word tells me?

I know I can change the settings and these will be stored in
the registry. However how can I make these settings read-only?
I have discovered the key that is used:

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StreamMRU

However, if I take all permissions off this key the setting goes
back to moron pictures again! :( The only way to preserve the settings
is by giving the owner read-write access. This also happens when you
set the permissions to be read-only. This defeats the purpose of
changing the setting and fixing it in stone. Does anyone know how this
works? Why should it default to large icons, and how can I stop this
whilst preventing any user from changing this?

Presumably the default value is read somewhere when the user does not
have write access to this key. Anyone know where this is?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Phil