How do I keep other people off a 98se computer? 1 more question.

[buck]

I know how to do it with win2k and winnt, but my wifes computer at church is being used and messed with by people that shouldnt. I have my own copy of win2k but they only have win98se. I have to put in a new HDD today or tomorrow and put a OS on there. Any suggestions?
Matt

 

[Shooters]

Tell her to unplug the power cord and take it with her whenever she leaves. Just kidding

How about setting up a supervisor password in the BIOS. Then no one will even be able to get into the OS.

 

[Andy22]

You could always password the system via the BIOS but that requires her to shut down every night to keep people off it. If you had the key you could also lock it.

 

[buck]

Yea, I knew about bios. I guess win2k is the only option (not really an option since its mine and I have it installed )
MAtt

 

[RayH]

You can password protect Win98se from the control panel. It's not very secure but it will stop most people who don't know what they're doing.

 

[buck]

How easy is it to bypass? What will it prevent them from doing?
I remember trying that years ago and it didnt work well. I forget though.....

 

[Courtland]

Id say your best option is to put in a bios password and then put in a screen saver password with a low idle time. If you leave th computer on the screen saver will basicaly protect it from anyone getting in, and if you reboot the bios password wont allow anyone to boot period. As far as the login password, thats just windows networkin BS which wont do anything but allow people to somewhat have their own setup/preferences, and it wont stop someone from getting in the system. the only way to protect windows startup from what I know of, is using the novell client if your on a novell network, or if theres some other third party app.

 

[bacillus]

consider hiding all the icons on the desktop. to do this you must view the active desktop as a web page then start/settings/folder options/view & check hide icons when desktop viewed as a web page!
you can also autohide the taskbar!
alternatively, consider this or this!

 

[Mookow]

I used to use Fictional Telnet Daemon at my high school, so I have a copy on my personal machine. It comes with a lock util, and I always used that and a startup BIOS password. It kept my machine fairly secure in my dorm room.

 

[virtuamike]

Hide all the folders and shortcuts. Most people aren't brilliant enough to show all hidden folders and files.

 

[wyvrn]

Bios password and screensaver password is the easiest and cheapest way. The only way someone can break it is to get ahold of the computer before the SS kicks in and disable the password option (or change the password). Chances of that happening, esp. if your wife is aware of the scheme, is pretty low. Even then she could easily correct it.

I am not sure if I would put an already used copy of Win2k on a church computer. You don't want to make them liable for any agreements you have broken.

 

[buck]

How do I get a bios password to work? Do some mobos have it and others dont?
I talked to my wife on the phone and she put in the password and it didnt prompt her when she restarted.
Thanks for suggestions.
Matt

 

[buck]

<< I am not sure if I would put an already used copy of Win2k on a church computer. You don't want to
make them liable for any agreements you have broken. >>


Thats exactly why i'm not:Q.
She cant get the password prompt in bios, any suggestions?

 

[wyvrn]

The bios will have a toggle to enable the password. Toggled one way, it will only ask for the bios password if you trying to make a change in the bios settins. Toggled the other way, it will ask for the bios password on bootup.

I think the two options are setup and startup.... Setup is for bios changes, startup will ask for password when the compuer is booted, before POST. At least this is the way I have seen it in most of the mobo's I have used. If it is a prebuilt computer like a Compaq (like the one I use here at work), you may not be able to use the bios password option (the bios will be proprietary)*.

Hope that helps.


* Actually I have an IBM and a Compaq here at work, and cannot set the bios password on either of them. To top it off, we use Win98 machines, and someone had erased Outlook and MS Office (along with my pst file and other important files) from my HDD. I can't do anything but reinstall these apps and rebuild the data from scratch. Pain in the a$$.

 

[jaywallen]

There are two types of BIOS password protection in most BIOS setup programs these days. Enabling one of them allows the system to boot without the password but presents the password prompt when someone tries to get into the BIOS setup program. (That keeps people from monkeying with the BIOS parameters but doesn't keep them from booting.) Your sife needs to look for a feature in the BIOS setup that might be referred to as something like Startup password or some such. She needs both types of protection to be activated.

If it's necessary to leave the Win9X system running and you need protection for it in that state, I'd suggest third party software like what's available from these folks. But I think it's overkill for this situation, and there's a learning curve for the person who must administer it.

One note of warning about setting the BIOS password. Tell your lady not to forget that puppy. On some recently made systems, mostly notebooks but also a lot of desktop systems, a forgotten BIOS startup password means a trip back to a service site for the motherboard.

Hope you folks find a good solution.

Regards,
Jim

 

[murdock2525]

Rottweiler !

 

[murdock2525]

Hehehe soundz like some &quot;church ! &quot;

 

[buck]

wyvrn, thanks, that worked.



<< soundz like some &quot;church ! &quot; >>


yea, no joke

I told my wife how to do it over the phone and she did it. Then she accidently typed in the wrong password and forgot what she typed.
So I had to go down there and reset cmos(kinda messed up that its all you have to do to reset it).

Ok last question, this knumbnuts set a password in win98se (oxymoron) how do I tell her to change it? We dont know what it is. I know its useless but I would like to change it for her. Anyway to change it (like in the reg or something?).
Matt

 

[acbimmer]

Big massive scary dog! jk

I'd go w/ the BIOS start up PW

 

[buck]

Yea, I did that and it works great!
This ass just put his name for the logon at my wifes computer at work and everytime she starts it up his name appears with a password. How do I cHanget the password? (btw, I changed the name, i need to know how to change the password).
Matt

 

[Joemonkey]

hrm, most of you will think this is strange, but bear with me...

leave the start menu at the bottom of the screen, and press the &quot;print screen&quot; button to take a picture of your desktop. then, go into paint and paste it, and save it as a bitmap. then, save this as your background. move the start menu to the TOP of the screen, and set it to autohide. the background will show a start menu at the bottom, but nothing will happen when you click it. also, any icons you had on the desktop will be simply background, so you can move them off screen or hide them like bacillus suggested. i always have my taskbar at the top, and always use autohide so if some random person wants to mess with it, it will take them a while to figure out what's going on at least.

 

[Mookow]

devious idea, Joemonkey. I like it!

 

[buck]

<< hrm, most of you will think this is strange, but bear with me...

leave the start menu at the bottom of the screen, and press the &quot;print screen&quot; button to take a picture of your desktop. then, go into paint and paste it, and save it as a bitmap. then, save this as your background. move the start menu to the TOP of the screen, and set it to autohide. the background will show a start menu at the bottom, but nothing will happen when you click it. also, any icons you had on the desktop will be simply background, so you can move them off screen or hide them like bacillus suggested. i always have my taskbar at the top, and always use autohide so if some random person wants to mess with it, it will take them a while to figure out what's going on at least. >>



LMAO, thats funny. This guy knows a little bit about computers, but that sounds like something I will do to mess with my wife at home.
Still looking.....

 

[freeflap]

You can always try Linux! It's free and has awesome security.
My 2 cents.

Joe Monkey: great idea!

 

[jaywallen]

Heck, I never paid much attention to the passwords in Win9X since I've only used Win9X briefly and that was always on standalones. User Names / Passwords on standalones only control which &quot;profile&quot; the user gets. And when I say &quot;profile&quot; I don't mean a real profile. Just dumb stuff like which wallpaper and which screensaver and such. And that's only if multiple users are enabled.

You can have your wife just log in under her name, then it should default to showing her name in the future (unless someone has altered a registry default). You can delete a single password list by using the Windows search function to find *.pwl. The one you want to kill is &quot;moron.pwl&quot; where &quot;moron&quot; is the name of the miscreant.

I think this is all correct. I'm a W2K convert who used to use AIX, with a brief stopover in Win98SE territory. Hope this goes well.

Regards,
Jim

PS. When you said that you'd tried it and it worked, I wasn't sure you didn't mean the Rotweiler!