Admin program locking?

[RollWave]

So I'm trying to set up a computer thats to be used for escripts and I want the nurses to be on task rather than wandering the internet or dinking around on other programs. Is there any freeware software I can use that will prevent install of new software and will limit what kinds of websites they can go to? Or pay software is an option. This is a busy office and I cant tolerate slackers .

 

[nsafreak]

I presume that you're using Windows XP/Vista? If so it's pretty simple to put them on limited user accounts and restrict what they can do using the group policy editor.

 

[RollWave]

sorry I didnt specify, Its going to be on XP. Does the group policy editor allow limitation of websites? Also, how do I access this control panel?

 

[nsafreak]

I'm not sure if it allows for the limitation of websites, I guess the easy way to do it would be to put the websites that you want them to access in the trusted zone and limit them to trusted zone sites only. The control panel is accessed by going to start -> run -> gpedit.msc .

 

[RollWave]

would i do this from that account or could I do that from a different account on that same computer?

 

[nsafreak]

You have to be an administrator to access the panel in the first place. So yes as long as the account has administrator privileges then yes you could do that.

 

[RollWave]

Thank you for the help. I'll try that out tomorrow at the office.

 

[randomlinh]

or just fire them if they aren't getting their work done =)

 

[mechBgon]

Definitely put them on Limited accounts, not Admin accounts. If you're on a Domain, that would be called Restricted User accounts.

If it's WinXP Professional Edition or Media Center Edition, I also suggest using Software Restriction Policy as shown here so they cannot run portable apps from a thumb drive or a CD/DVD (to name just one benefit).

You might also be interested in Windows SteadyState, which is free. It will allow you to specify what programs they can and cannot use.

None of those will prevent people from visiting websites they're not supposed to visit, however. If it were Vista Home Premium/Basic or Vista Ultimate, you could do that with Parental Controls, whitelisting the specific sites you want to allow, as well as specifying what programs they can/cannot use.

 

[imported_snikt]

You might also be interested in Windows SteadyState, which is free. It will allow you to specify what programs they can and cannot use.

None of those will prevent people from visiting websites they're not supposed to visit, however. If it were Vista Home Premium/Basic or Vista Ultimate, you could do that with Parental Controls, whitelisting the specific sites you want to allow, as well as specifying what programs they can/cannot use.

Actually SteadyState does give you an option to prevent Internet access but I'm not sure how well it does it though. We only started using SteadyState and haven't tested it thoroughly but from what we have tested it does a pretty good job of blocking Internet access.

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: snikt

You might also be interested in Windows SteadyState, which is free. It will allow you to specify what programs they can and cannot use.

None of those will prevent people from visiting websites they're not supposed to visit, however. If it were Vista Home Premium/Basic or Vista Ultimate, you could do that with Parental Controls, whitelisting the specific sites you want to allow, as well as specifying what programs they can/cannot use.

Actually SteadyState does give you an option to prevent Internet access but I'm not sure how well it does it though. We only started using SteadyState and haven't tested it thoroughly but from what we have tested it does a pretty good job of blocking Internet access.

Thanks for the info I haven't used SteadyState in person yet, guess I should get a WinXP virtual machine set up and try it out.

 

[RollWave]

So thus far I've put on steady state which is absolutely amazing...but for some reason when I log into my limited account I get all these random little errors...once those are all through though the computer behaves as I wish. What could be erroring on login?

 

[mechBgon]

The Windows Event Viewer logs ought to have some info on the errors, see anything useful in there?