How to I restrict program access based on time?

[InlineFive]

I'm trying to restrict my roommates access to games on my computer by time. I'm using WinXP Professional on a P2P network. I would like to restrict his account's access to these programs M-F & Sunday from 8-5. How can I go about doing this? Do I need to make his account something else then Administrator?

Thank you!

-Por

 

[AFB]

Just games ? If so, I think you need somthing more than XP.

 

[InlineFive]

Originally posted by: amdfanboy
Just games ? If so, I think you need somthing more than XP.

Hmm, I knew you can restrict users but I thought there might be a timeframe I could use also... Would I need a server running Win2k or Win2k3 server to make this happen?

-Por

 

[mrweirdo]

I think you have to have a server os runing on that machine in order to do it. Mayby there is decent third party software out there that can help you achieve what your looking to do. Anyways something too look into
downloads.com might be a good resource

 

[InlineFive]

Originally posted by: mrweirdo
I think you have to have a server os runing on that machine in order to do it. Mayby there is decent third party software out there that can help you achieve what your looking to do. Anyways something too look into
downloads.com might be a good resource

I'll check there. Thanks.

 

[spyordie007]

Do I need to make his account something else then Administrator?

To answer this part of your question, yes. If he is an Admin than he could undo whatever changes you make.

 

[InlineFive]

Originally posted by: spyordie007

Do I need to make his account something else then Administrator?

To answer this part of your question, yes. If he is an Admin than he could undo whatever changes you make.

So there is no way to do this time based usage policy?

 

[spyordie007]

yes you probably can with a 3rd party application; however you will likely have to remove him from the administrators group else he could undo whatever you do...

 

[InlineFive]

Originally posted by: spyordie007
yes you probably can with a 3rd party application; however you will likely have to remove him from the administrators group else he could undo whatever you do...

OK I get the Admin part. Could you think of a possible program for me? Meanwhile I'm off to Google...

-Por

 

[pitupepito2000]

PorBleemo, I would first have to say. ONLY USE THE ADMINISTRATOR ACCOUNT FOR MAINTAINCE AND INSTALL PROGRAMS SYSTEM WIDE. You can make a lot of damage to your computer by using the administrator account for regular day to day basis things such as gaming and web browsing. You probably wan to make you and your friends different accounts that are part of the "Power Users" group, which would allow you to run programs, but is safer and you can't break as many things as with an administrator account.

With Win2k or WinXP you can't restrict users to use a program by date or time. Only the Windows server types of OS allow you to do this. What you want is a third party application that allows you to do this (Idon't know any).

Another way you could try to do it is to change the rights or permissions to that program whenever you don't want your friend using that program. You can probably create a macro to do this, and the use the "System scheduler" to run this macro at specific times of the day to change the permissions of the program to allow/disallow your friend from using those programs.

I hope this works, I am not sure about the second method because I personally don't use windows,
pitupepito

 

[stimpyman77]

PorBleemo,

Just throwing this out there... but is it possible to just create a small batch file or script to change the NTFS file permissions (if using NTFS) on the executable so the user has no access to it.. this could then be scheduled with task scheduler for the necessary times. Just a thought.. for a quick fix..

Stimpyman77

 

[stimpyman77]

PorBleemo,

Just throwing this out there... but is it possible to just create a small batch file or script to change the NTFS file permissions (if using NTFS) on the executable so the user has no access to it.. this could then be scheduled with task scheduler for the necessary times. Just a thought.. for a quick fix..

Stimpyman77

 

[Falloutboy]

umm I got a solution tell your roommate to only use the computer when you say its ok or just lock him out completly

 

[InlineFive]

Originally posted by: pitupepito2000
PorBleemo, I would first have to say. ONLY USE THE ADMINISTRATOR ACCOUNT FOR MAINTAINCE AND INSTALL PROGRAMS SYSTEM WIDE. You can make a lot of damage to your computer by using the administrator account for regular day to day basis things such as gaming and web browsing. You probably wan to make you and your friends different accounts that are part of the "Power Users" group, which would allow you to run programs, but is safer and you can't break as many things as with an administrator account.

With Win2k or WinXP you can't restrict users to use a program by date or time. Only the Windows server types of OS allow you to do this. What you want is a third party application that allows you to do this (Idon't know any).

Another way you could try to do it is to change the rights or permissions to that program whenever you don't want your friend using that program. You can probably create a macro to do this, and the use the "System scheduler" to run this macro at specific times of the day to change the permissions of the program to allow/disallow your friend from using those programs.

I hope this works, I am not sure about the second method because I personally don't use windows,
pitupepito

That's the kind of thing I am looking for! One small problem though, how do I write macros? I don't know ANY programming languages.

-Por

 

[pitupepito2000]

You don't have to know programming in order to write a macro. In windows, for example I have used Excel, and Word, you only have to click a button to record and then then a button to stop. That's all what you do in those applications, then you push a button to play the macro. It's all kind of like using a recording on a cassette. As I mentioned before I don't use windows, that's why I don't know of any good programs that will allow you to write macros. After a couple of minutes of googling this is what I got:
http://tucows.mundofree.com/winnt/macrosnt_rating.html
http://download.com.com/3120-20-0.html?qt=macro&tg=dl-2001&search=+Go%2521+
http://www.softpedia.com/public/cat/4/7/4-7-21.shtml

I hope this helps,
pitupepito