user profile for my young son

[Wade]

Hi folks...

I've been using W2Kpro for a couple of months now, but am still quite new to the whole user profile security aspect of things.

Here's what I want to accomplish:

My 18 month old son has now developed enough dexterity to move the mouse around and has also now made the connection between the mouse and the screen pointer moving, so I'd like to start installing some of the baby/toddler software I've accumulated in the past year.

Ideally, what I'd like to do for him is have a user profile in which he can access nothing but the desktop icons (to launch his stuff with which of course I'd still be doing for awhile yet)... so, no start button, no taskbar, no rightclick menus, etc... anyone know how I'd go about this?

Cheers,
Wade

 

[Ladi]

That sounds like a lot of fun

I would start out by creating a user profile with "guest" privileges with nothing in the start menu (by taking things out of the start>programs dir under documents&settings, by hiding everything possible under start>settings>taskbar&start menu, and by using tweakUI). Then you can cheat a little and just drag the very edge of the taskbar to the very edge of the screen, so just the top few pixels are visible and drag/drop is required to get to the bar.

You may want to see if poledit.exe would still be applicable to win2k (I suspect it is, but I haven't had a chance to check it out).

Only allowing your son to use a mouse (perhaps one of the oversized kids ones without extra buttons?) might help as well.

Also, there are applications that exist purely for toddlers to be using the computer that will eliminate everything but desktop items...you may want to look for those.

Good luck

~Ladi

 

[Wade]

Thanx Ladi... sheesh... dragging the taskbar border down... one never thinks of the simplest solutions, eh?

Cheers,
Wade

 

[Ladi]

Stole it from a trick we use to hide IM windows from people at work

A few other notes: make sure you keep cords wrapped up/kept away...try tweakUI to remove extra icons from the desktop, and if your son is very persistent, you may want to look into providing a 'shell' or 'sandbox' type application to run over or in place of explorer.exe (things like litestep)...

~Ladi

 

[StuckMojo]

i agree that the above solutions will work as a quick and easy solution, but if you want to, you can probably accomplish everything you want to do with the policy editor (and learn a few useful things while your at it )

if you right click on my computer and choose "manage..." you'll get the computer management MMC from which you can access the policy editor. using that tool you can do all the things you want (i think). i suggest getting to it and opening the help, and doing some reading. if i remember correctly from poking around in there about 6 months ago, it gives you pretty fine grained control over the whole desktop and user environment.

again, expect to spend some time reading and experimenting. like 2 days or so. however, once you explore it, you'll have a new tool in your belt i think it would be worth it to do it right.

update this thread and let us know how it goes...i've been looking for an excuse to climb in there myself, but haven't had one yet.

 

[Wade]

Hi folks...

Quick update... I have applied some of the "quickfix" ideas that Ladi originally suggested, and for the most part they seem to be working pretty well. The only hitch is that I now need a way to disable the dreaded "windows" key on the keyboard in my son's profile as he keeps bringing up the taskbar and minimizing his toddler software when hammering on the keyboard... I think that has to be done with a piece of software though... will let you know as I figure it out.

Also, I am definitely going to try (when I get the time sometime this month I hope) playing with the policy editor.

The only other thing I'd like to work out is a way for my boy's profile to use its own video resolution. When I change his resolution to 640x480 (to better suit the toddler software) it sticks when I reboot to my own profile... ick... no big deal, but that's what I'm doing his own profile for in the first place, to make all these changes automatic.

Cheers,
Wade

 

[StuckMojo]

i happened to be home on my win2k box when i checked this update, so here's one from me:

i was wrong about how to get to the policy editor, its here:

Start | Programs | Administrative Tools | Local Security Settings

assuming you have chosen to show admin tools in the start menu. if not, go thru the control panel to get to admin tools.

having just poked in there for a sec...you'll definately have to do some searching reading to set stuff up. some of the things you wanted to do didnt just jump out at me, but im relatively certain you can do them.

a good resource to remember is MSDN msdn.microsoft.com

 

[StuckMojo]

umm...i should point out that i was specifically speaking of the MSDN online library (not that the rest of the site isnt good)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp