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is there any way to prevent this kid from installing games?

D

dpopiz

Diamond Member
my friend's little brother (13) spends all his time playing warcraft 3 and heroes 3. no exaggerations, he spends 2-3 hours per weekday on them and more than 6 hours per day on the weekends. he really needs help. his parents have of course tried as much as they can to prevent him from playing games so much. they've even confiscated his power cord on several occasions, but then he usually just borrows one from a friend. he's really not good at all with computers, but he knows how to install games and he knows if his parents confiscate his CDs, he can just get them from a friend. so, his parents asked me if I could figure out a way to stop him from installing games. I'd love to find the answer, because this kid needs it! do any of you know of a simple way to prevent him from installing certain software, but still let the computer function normally otherwise?
he's using winxp home
 
There are programs to restrict access that are normally used for display or school use but the XP Profiles could be used where each user must login with a password and may have restricted access to certain functions such as installing software.

There is also the hardware option.
 
well, like I said it's got to be a solution that *retains full fuctionality of the computer*, while preventing him from installing a few specific programs. however, maybe auric's idea of just preventing him from installing all software is a good idea. then if he really needs to install anything I'll do it for him while he's not looking. that also has the added benefit of reducing the number of tech calls I get from him since he won't be able to install the loads of horrible, bloated spyware adware buggy software that currently infect his computer.
 
As a last resort the parents could try paying attention to their kid? Checking in once or twice a day to make sure he's surfing for pr0n or doing homework and not just gaming?

Or use tranquilizers, I hear they're much easier than dealing with a kid who gets emotional when you take away his toys.
 
well the problem is, first of all, his parents can't keep track of him that much because his mom has a medical problem that requires her to stay in her room hooked up to a machine a lot of the time, and his dad is a workaholic professor who's always busy at school. still, they do keep an eye on him somewhat but like the above poster said, it's very difficult dealing with him when his toy is taken away. he always finds bits of time here and there when his parents aren't watching when he can play, but he's so good at taking advantage of those times that it really adds up
 
<pop psychology> he might be doing this because of a lack of parental attention, and cutting off the games might just drive him to do something else to seek attention </pop psychology>

But if parental oversight isn't feasible, taking away his Admin rights should help (maybe not even telling the parents the password so he can't search the house for it). Unfortunately he'll probably just switch to Flash games or gas huffing.
 
downgrade the harddrive to 1.5gb. enough for windows and programs. not enough for games. i dunno how big heroes is.

downgrade the video card to integrated graphics! or something of the like.

remove ram.

remove the mouse.

bios password.

this will affect the computer, but wont do much to word processing or email. but it will kill newer video games.
 
My thoughts are the same as Auric's. The kid should be given a "limited" account, which blocks a user from doing much of anything that will affect the computer -- including installing new software. I done this myself with XP Pro (and understand that it's also possible with XP Home). Be warned, however, that many of the games -- particularly the older ones -- are not written to run within the restrictions of a "limited" account. You may need to experiment some to circumvent problems. You can try running the games in "compatibility" for earlier windows operating systems (under Properties -> Compatibility). You can also use the RUNAS command to run the game program with a different set of rights (e.g. full administartor rights) from his "limited" account.

Good Luck!
 
Originally posted by: onza
why not disconnect the cdrom drive? as a temp solution
Click to expand...

Hah!
Just pull out the IDE cable. Then, we he calls you to ask why his cdrom drives not working, you say "you tried to install a game, didn't you.... It knows..." 😉
 
so are the kids grades bad? like is he failing anything? I mean is there a real reason as to why he cant play the games that often, other than they dont want him too? or is it affecting his life? Cause if its not affecting anyhting then whats the big deal? he has no attention from parents and is doing fine then let him play some games
 
In WinXp there are security policies that can prevent installs, cd-rom and directory access except by the Admin. Btw, heroes3 takes about 450MB.
 
ok, it sounds like a limited acct is the way to go, but what about what powerengineer said? he wouldn't be able to figure out how to get around the restrictions with runas or something, but do many older games still install on a limited acct in winxp home?
 
Take the damn computer away from him, and sign his (probably) lard ass up for sports of some type.
I've been out of school for quite awhile now, and i never needed a computer to get anything done.
 
Originally posted by: dpopiz
ok, it sounds like a limited acct is the way to go, but what about what powerengineer said? he wouldn't be able to figure out how to get around the restrictions with runas or something, but do many older games still install on a limited acct in winxp home?
Click to expand...

If they're DOS games they install just fine, I think. However, I think there's a way to disable users from opening a DOS command prompt.

And I'm curious too, why're the parents so worried about the kid playing games? What you've told us has given me a vague impression of his home life but I'm unsure of the circumstances. If the kid's grades are bad I can see it, yeah. But if it's because the parents want him outside playing with friends he doesn't have that's pretty messed up. You can't force a kid to be socially adept enough to make friends and be social if... well to put it bluntly if he's a dork. I was on a schedule roughly like this kid when I was growing up, though not for the same reasons. (I went to school in a different county so all my friends lived 30 minutes away, although honestly I was a bit geeky too) As long as I got my work done my folks were fine with me being on the computer for hours a day; the only other option was to have them ferry me into town to hang with friends. (Though that changed once I was able to drive. Of course then I actually hung out with my friends)

Get back to us man. I'd hate to think I'm depriving some poor socially challenged kid his only source of entertainment.


EDIT: Oh yes, as far as internet games go you can also disable java script and certain plugins for IE on a user-by-user basis. (Just make the plugin files inaccessible for that user) Mixed with the installation limits he shouldn't be able to get around it. At least not easily.
 
dpopiz, like some of the other posters said, his family is going to have to give him his own user name and password with a restricted account. They're also going to have to have a real password(not something he can guess) for the Adminstrator account. Going into the BIOS and setting the system to only boot from the hard drive and then setting a BIOS password wouldn't hurt.

Still, I don't understand what's so bad about him playing games as long as he keeps up with his schoolwork. When I was his age, I probably spent almost as much time as he does.
 
Originally posted by: dpm
Originally posted by: onza
why not disconnect the cdrom drive? as a temp solution
Click to expand...

Hah!
Just pull out the IDE cable. Then, we he calls you to ask why his cdrom drives not working, you say "you tried to install a game, didn't you.... It knows..." 😉
Click to expand...

That is funny!! He would $#it his pants.
 
How about giving him something else to do? Uh, his mom is never available, his dad is never available. What the hell is he supposed to do without a computer? Just sit in his room and 'be a good boy'? Get him interested in something fun, take him mountain biking. Nobody is just going to sit in their room and do nothing because for some reason they shouldn't be playing games.
 
a kid should have better stuff to do then playing games all day. I guess that's up to the parents to decide though. Definately try the permisions thing if he has XP. If he doesn't then take the ribbon cable off the cd drive.
 
Originally posted by: dpopiz
my friend's little brother (13) spends all his time playing warcraft 3 and heroes 3. no exaggerations, he spends 2-3 hours per weekday on them and more than 6 hours per day on the weekends. he really needs help. his parents have of course tried as much as they can to prevent him from playing games so much. they've even confiscated his power cord on several occasions, but then he usually just borrows one from a friend. he's really not good at all with computers, but he knows how to install games and he knows if his parents confiscate his CDs, he can just get them from a friend. so, his parents asked me if I could figure out a way to stop him from installing games. I'd love to find the answer, because this kid needs it! do any of you know of a simple way to prevent him from installing certain software, but still let the computer function normally otherwise?
he's using winxp home
Click to expand...

Is this the kid's computer?? Why not just take it outta his room?

 
BIOS power on password?

Edit- if it doesn't have that option. Computer Geeks has a device you might want to look at: HDD Security + Front Mounted USB, Firewire and Sound Ports It has a cool feature of encryption with authentication keys. They might be able to get into the reward system with the kid. Get an A on a tes, get the keys to the computer for an hour or something. His friends aren't likely to have one of the authentication keys to borrow.
 
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