How to lock a machine down?

A[L]C

A[L]C

A[L]C

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
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Location
Maidenhead
Hi all,

Ive got a laptop with wireless which I let my other halfs little sisters use for web and msn when they come round. One is 11 and one is 15. I need to find the best way to lock the machine down to stop them looking at stuff they shouldnt, and to protect them and the machine.

There's no budget for this so everything needs to be free.

Was thinking of:

Spybot
AVG
http://www.k9webprotection.com/ - parental control software

Now whats the easiest/best way to lock down XP so they cant break anything?

Any comments/suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
 
Well I can't comment on the parental control software as I've never used it but I'd go with avast! over AVG. Spybot is good but stick ewido on as well. You could slap Windows Defender in for good measure as well :)

As for locking XP down, you can only really do this if it runs XP Pro- then you can use the group policy editor to make changes however you will have to disable them whenever you log on as yourself unless you want a restricted environment :)
 
As said the best way if you have Pro is to setup a group policy but deny the Administator read right to the GroupPolicy folder once you have made changes. Other wise when you log off and back on again you might find yourself a little restricted. :)

TrUz
 
Ewido is anti-malware and windows defender is microsoft's attempt at anti-spyware which although still in BETA stages is actually rather good :)
 
Why dont you just create a seperate Windows account for them to use, and set a password on your account. Make sure that account is only a member of Users - this will be sufficient to get on the web, MSN and whatever else 11 and 15 year old girls do on the computer. Neopet anyone? :p

Don't forget to set the NTFS permissions on any folders you really don't want them looking in.
 
Must be something wrong or your doing something wrong if you are having problems with Window updates. :)

TrUz
 
Another solution is to just boot up a linux live CD when they want to go on the computer, connect them to the internet and off you go, internet looks the same, no viruses or spyware to worry about and if they do change anything once you reboot its gone anyway :)
 
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