In recent years, generative artificial neural networks based on restricted Boltzmann machines (RBMs) have been successfully employed as accurate and flexible variational wave functions for clean quantum many-body systems. In this article we explore their use in simulations of disordered quantum spin models... The standard dense RBM with all-to-all inter-layer connectivity is not particularly appropriate for large disordered systems, since in such systems one cannot exploit translational invariance to reduce the amount of parameters to be optimized. To circumvent this problem, we implement sparse RBMs, whereby the visible spins are connected only to a subset of local hidden neurons, thus reducing the amount of parameters. We assess the performance of sparse RBMs as a function of the range of the allowed connections, and compare it with the one of dense RBMs. Benchmark results are provided for two sign-problem free Hamiltonians, namely pure and random quantum Ising chains. The RBM ansatzes are trained using the unsupervised learning scheme based on projective quantum Monte Carlo (PQMC) algorithms. We find that the sparse connectivity facilitates the training process and allows sparse RBMs to outperform the dense counterparts. Furthermore, the use of sparse RBMs as guiding functions for PQMC simulations allows us to perform PQMC simulations at a reduced computational cost, avoiding possible biases due to finite random-walker populations. We obtain unbiased predictions for the ground-state energies and the magnetization profiles with fixed boundary conditions, at the ferromagnetic quantum critical point. The magnetization profiles agree with the Fisher-de Gennes scaling relation for conformally invariant systems, including the scaling dimension predicted by the renormalization-group analysis. (read more)