[Better] Parental Controls

[LqDFx]

I have set up the computer so that the kids can us the system and have restrictions. I am looking for better parental controls than what is built into Vista though.

What I need to do is force a log out, not just restrict access to the system. The fist time it happened it was in the middle of a game and would not allow me, the admin to force the log off to get the game to stop. I am also looking to restrict access to the drives and programs. I have removed the shortcuts, but that is just not good enough with my kids. They mare young (under 7) and very smart.

Anyone know how I can use the controls built in better or a software package that I can purchase that will work for me?

[fairyprincess]

If you want to force anybody who is logged on/just the kids user acouts if logged on to be forcfully logged of, use task skedular to run either the program shutdown with switches /l /f, this will force a logoff. (for more info on shutdown command run comand promt and type shutdown)

however i have fun sometimes it didn't work correctly when run directly from the task scheduler so i made a simple batch file with it in and got task schedular to run it.

use notepad and write

shutdown /l /f

then save as logoff.bat or something similar (make sure its not been saved as logoff.bat.txt)

have a play around with the task schedular, if you need more detailed instructions then say and i will help

as for hiding drives, this can be done via the registry, i will have a look as i could do it for xp and post back later

[fairyprincess]

To hide a drive.

Click on start highlight run and type in regedit then expand the tree to

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

In the Explorer key folder, create a new DWORD value by right-clicking Explorer, then choosing New DWORD value. Name the value "NoDrives" (without the quotes). This value defines local and network drive visibility for each logical drive on the computer. All drives will be visible as long as this value's data is set to 0.

Following the table provided below, enter the decimal number corresponding to the drive(s) you want to hide as NoDrives value data. When you right-click on NoDrives and choose Modify, be sure that you select Decimal base, not Hexadecimal.

Drive Number to hide

A: 1

B: 2

C: 4

D: 8

E: 16

F: 32

G: 64

H: 128

I: 256

J: 512

K: 1024

L: 2048

M: 4096

N: 8192

O: 16384

P: 32768

Q: 65536

R: 131072

S: 262144

T: 524288

U: 1048576

V: 2097152

W: 4194304

X: 8388608

Y: 16777216

Z: 33554432

All drives 67108863

If you want to hide more than one drive, you just simply add the drive amounts together for a combined total.

For example, to hide the D:/ and T:/ drives, add the decimal value for the D:/ drive to the decimal value to the T:/ drive.

8 (D) + 524288 (T) = 524296

To disable all of your visible drives, set the value to 67108863.

You must reboot your PC to see your changes.

This is info i saved about a year ago, its posted in quite a few places so can't remember who to give credit to, but it works. You will have to logon as the users u want to restrict to do this for each of them.

I haven't tested this under windows vista, so if it doesn't work i will have a look around and try myself, but dont't see why it shouldn't. I will test this later myself when i'm not busy.

Hope this helps

[Idontwantspam]

Actually, you don't need to log on as the user. You can load their profile from a different admin account.

Open regedit. Open HKEY_USERS. Click File > Load hive. Browse to C:\(not sure where)\USERNAME\ntuser.dat. Specify some name. Then, browse along to <that key>\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Policies and do what you need to do. When you're done, MAKE SURE to unload the hive (file > unload hive), or else the user won't be able to log on.

Also this should help you.