Vista Parental Controls Question.

Scania · 8 Jan 2008 at 17:04

I have a friend who's bought her daughter a Laptop with Vista Home edition pre-installed.

She asked me to set it all up for her (install BT Software etc) so she can use it wirelessly but is very concerned about her daughters web browsing & MSN messenger use.

I was trying to set up the parental controls on her account (Admin) so she could keep a log of her daughters account (restricted) MSN conversation history but kept getting a message saying that this was not supported.

Surely a Microsoft OS would be able to log a Microsoft Chat program wouldn't it? I assume I have done something wrong.

I've got the Parental controls set up to bar her using the lap top at night (after bedtime) and set up so my friend has to enter her password for any sites not in her "allowed" list that her daughter wants to access.

If I can get Vista to track MSN she will be very happy.

Any help appreciated.

N.B. The Daughter in question is 12 before I get accused of invading her privacy, its quite the opposite, her Mum wants to protect her by keeping track of what goes on when her daughters chatting to "friends" - I think the media has scared her half to death about her daughter & MSN etc, hopefully this will reassure her.

superplay · 8 Jan 2008 at 20:39

As far as I am aware you cannot track converstaions using the inbuilt Parental Control tool and you need something like this

http://www.zemericks.com/products/chatwatch/index.asp

Free tiral for download.

Scania · 8 Jan 2008 at 20:57

superplay said:
As far as I am aware you cannot track converstaions using the inbuilt Parental Control tool and you need something like this

http://www.zemericks.com/products/chatwatch/index.asp

Free tiral for download.

Thats great isn't it? the parental controls even has a tab for monitoring chat programs but not, apparently Microsofts own!

Thanks for the link, I'll forward it to her.

superplay · 8 Jan 2008 at 21:17

I may be wrong here, it is a while since I last looked at these. I will have another play with the inbuilt controls and will let you know the results.

Cheers

superplay · 8 Jan 2008 at 22:53

OK Here is the answer, had another play!

I was correct in saying that the inbuilt tools cannot log Messenger / IM communication. The inclusion of the heading in the report tool is a bit misleading.

The heading is there as there are a set of APIs that developers can hook into Parental Controls with their software. eg to log IM.

The 3rd pary developers at launch:

* Safe Eyes - www.safeeyes.com
* Contentwatch - www.contentwatch.com
* IMSafer - www.imsafer.com
* Pix Alert - www.pixalert.com

M$ recommended IMSAfer as the IM logger, however the site seems to be down. Looking around Microsoft OneCare can hook into this.

So really in my opinion this should not be shown in the interface unless you have a compatible IM logging plug-in.

Hope this helps you out.

Scania · 9 Jan 2008 at 12:06

superplay said:
OK Here is the answer, had another play!

I was correct in saying that the inbuilt tools cannot log Messenger / IM communication. The inclusion of the heading in the report tool is a bit misleading.

The heading is there as there are a set of APIs that developers can hook into Parental Controls with their software. eg to log IM.

The 3rd pary developers at launch:

* Safe Eyes - www.safeeyes.com
* Contentwatch - www.contentwatch.com
* IMSafer - www.imsafer.com
* Pix Alert - www.pixalert.com

M$ recommended IMSAfer as the IM logger, however the site seems to be down. Looking around Microsoft OneCare can hook into this.

So really in my opinion this should not be shown in the interface unless you have a compatible IM logging plug-in.

Hope this helps you out.

Thank you, thats a great help.

I'll have a play with her setup this weekend and see how I go with the 3rd party applications.