Question about admin and non admin on XP

[Saxoholic]

I have XP professional on my PC. My father consistantly hijacks the computer (which I paid for, if he wants to use one he has a nice 400mhz gateway in the other room) and downloads porn and other crap and makes my computer run like crap. I'm getting tired of having to keep undoing what he does. How much can I limit from his user name? He does not have admin privellages, but if I delete stuff off the start menu, it makes it inconvenient for me.


Thanks

 

[GoHAnSoN]

um, create another login account for your nice dad (which u suppose to do)?
and i guess u can limit whole lot of stuff as an admin.

 

[Saxoholic]

But what stuff can I limit from his user? And where can I find the options to limit that stuff.... like, can I make certain programs not open for him?

 

[GoHAnSoN]

i havent do it my self, i'm alwasy the only one who use my pc
but i think u can create account, and install whatever prog u want him to use for him. But he woulnt be able to install prog as he's in limited user mode.

 

[Nothinman]

You'll pretty much need to mess with the ACLs in the program files directory, deny him any access to all then allow access to what you want. Be carefull though, there's some things in there that Windows uses too.

 

[Saxoholic]

How do I go about doing that?

 

[GoHAnSoN]

goto : control panel ---> user account

 

[Nothinman]

First start reading, otherwise I guarantee you'll have messed up the permissions so badly you'll be reloading the box in a day or so.

 

[sak]

Man just make him a new user account.. or even just enable the Guest account on the comp. that should be the only think u need to do..

why do u want to stop him from using programs on ur comp..i mean what difference would that make..i mean u already said he downloads porn..i mean i am sure u d/l porn as well..so share the wealth man..he's just like T&A time just like u do..its all good

 

[mikecel79]

or even just enable the Guest account on the comp

Please don't ever suggest that again! That's a huge security no no. It's like leaving a lockpick for a theif on your front door.

 

[GoHAnSoN]

Originally posted by: mikecel79

or even just enable the Guest account on the comp

Please don't ever suggest that again! That's a huge security no no. It's like leaving a lockpick for a theif on your front door.

LOL, chill, that's his dad, and that's his pc, not a public pc...

 

[Nothinman]

LOL, chill, that's his dad, and that's his pc, not a public pc...

If it's on the Internet it's essentially a public PC.

 

[elzmaddy]

Please, make a backup of your Windows partition if possible (use Norton Ghost, etc) before you try those changes.

Imagine how much junk must be installed on your system. Those plugin installation requests that pop up, asking you if you want to install something -- he must have clicked 'Yes' to all of those. And he pobably ran executable files named "webcam.exe" that he downloaded and other junk like that. I recommend a full virus and trojan horse scan and also running a spyware removal utility (AdAware).

Can't you just ban this guy completely?

 

[mikecel79]

If it's on the Internet it's essentially a public PC.

Damn Nothinman you beat me to it! He's right, if your on the internet it's pretty much public.

 

[elzmaddy]

Damn Nothinman you beat me to it! He's right, if your on the internet it's pretty much public.

Are you saying my data is public? I hope not. I keep lots of sensitive info here including cc & bank account, paypal passwords, etc (although on encrypted volume, most of the time it is mounted). I'm running Win XP Pro and I do my best to keep my system locked down. But would you recommend that I change some of my practices?

 

[Nothinman]

Are you saying my data is public? I hope not. I keep lots of sensitive info here including cc & bank account, paypal passwords, etc (although on encrypted volume, most of the time it is mounted). I'm running Win XP Pro and I do my best to keep my system locked down. But would you recommend that I change some of my practices?

My point was that if you're on the Internet access to your computer can be had from anywhere in the world, it's up to you to allow or disallow that access and enabling the guest account is one way of allowing nearly all access if you're not carefull.

 

[dawks]

XP Pro or XP Home? XP Home doesnt give you as much power to control access as XP Pro.

If you create an account for him and make it a limited user, he wont be able to install most programs... And then you can have all your own start menu items, and he can have his own, of which, you can control.

 

[Wolf00]

If he's not too computer literate, then maybe just limiting what he can see on the Start menu will be enough. To do this, Bring up Windows Explorer and go to C:\Documents and Settings. The folders you will want to pay attention to are the Desktop and the Start Menu folders in each profile. For programs that you want him and you to have access to, you can put those in the Start Menu for the All Users profile. If there are programs that only he uses, then you can put those in the Start Menu in his profile. For everything else, put those shortcuts in your profile.

If he's computer literate, then he can always just go to Start, Run and type in exactly what he wants to run.