File and Periperhal Access - Permissions

  • Thread starter Thread starter William Kuss
  • Start date Start date
W

William Kuss

In Windows XP Pro SP2, is there a simple way to restrict a certain user (my
8
year old) from launching certain programs (like iMesh) or using certain
peripherals (like the printer)?

Thanks in advance for the responses.
 
Don't know about SP2. It hasn't even gone to alpha testing yet much less
general release.

However on XP or XP SP1 it is possible to restrict use of anything on the
machine. How depends on whether you have Pro or HE. Quick and dirty though,
if you move stuff from the "Documents and Settings\All Users\Desktop" and
"Documents and Settings\All Users\Startup" hierarchies and place them in
individual user areas (still part of the documents and settings structure),
you can at least control the stuff that's clickable.

--
Walter Clayton - MS MVP(WinXP)
Associate Expert
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
http://www.dts-l.org
http://support.microsoft.com/servicedesks/fileversion/default.asp
 
Printers are a different story. Unfortunately I can't verify this with HE
since my HE machines use the printer attached to my Pro box. You can try
this however, since it will either work or not. If you boot your machine
into safe mode and log on with an admin account you'll expose security tabs
on the properties sheets for different resources. On Pro, I can control
which user can use the printer. If the same tab is exposed on HE in safe
mode, then you can simply create a deny for the child and he won't be able
to print. Literally, boot into safe mode, go into Printers and Faxs, right
click the printer and select properties. What you're looking for is the
security tab. If present, hit the add button, hit advanced, hit find now,
scroll to your childs user id and click on it then hit OK. Hit OK again.
With that profile highlighted, simple toggle deny on the print option. If
the security tab isn't exposed, then simply unplug the printer.

--
Walter Clayton - MS MVP(WinXP)
Associate Expert
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
http://www.dts-l.org
http://support.microsoft.com/servicedesks/fileversion/default.asp
 
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