The two parts to the work of the Kernel Shim Engine (KSE) can be disabled separately, each in two ways. First, each part has its own registry value for disabling by policy:

Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Policies\Microsoft\Compatibility
Values: DisableDeviceFlags
DisableDriverShims
Type: REG_DWORD
Default: 0

To be meaningful, the value must have exactly four bytes of data of the required type. If this data is 1, then the (corresponding) device or driver functionality is disabled. Both settings have user-interface support in the Group Policy Object Editor as “Device compatibility settings” and “Driver compatibility settings”, respectively, in the “Device and Driver Compatibility” administrative template. The descriptions given there are:

“Changes behavior of Microsoft bus drivers to work with specific devices.”
“Changes behavior of 3rd-party drivers to work around incompatibilities introduced between OS versions.”

Second, either or both can be disabled through a shared registry value:

Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Compatibility
Value: DisableFlags
Type: REG_DWORD
Default: 0

For this value too, the data must be exactly four bytes of the required type. Two bits are meaningful: a set 0x01 bit disables the engine’s driver functionality, and a set 0x02 bit disables the device functionality.