Limiting Access in xp

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
  • Start date Start date
G

Guest

How can I limit my employees to only the program they need to do their job.
I have a stand alone computer and do not want them to access anything, but
the program they need for my clients.
 
If the computer is XP Pro or XP Media you can take advantage of restrictive
NTFS permissions to folders and Software Restriction Policies [though a
somewhat advanced topic]. For XP Home you can also use NTFS permissions. For
Home or Pro you can also use the Shared Computer Toolkit that is free from
Microsoft that can make it fairly easy to lock down a computer along with
NTFS permission restrictions. The links below explain more. For instance you
can assign permissions to folders for only the groups you want to access
with the level of access you want such as list/read/execute/modify. In such
case you will need to remove everyone/users/authenticated users from the
permissions list and then make sure only the users/groups you want are
present. However do NOT try to modify permissions for the \windows folder
and subfolders as you can mess up the operating system if you do not know
exactly what you are doing. Most applications are installed into the program
files folder. Also when assigning permissions understand that a lack of
permissions is an implicit deny and try to avoid deny permissions
particularly for groups like everyone/users/authenticated users as
administrators are also members of those groups. Windows Vista home/ultimate
with parental controls will make what you want to do pretty simple.

Steve

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308418 --- using
NTFS permissions
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/maintain/rstrplcy.mspx
--- Software Restriction Policies
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/sharedaccess/default.mspx --- Shared
Computer Toolkit
 
I forgot to add to make sure that the users in question are not members of
the local administrators group as any user in that group can undo any
changes you make assuming they have the desire and skill to do so. Also in
XP Home the built in administrator account that can only be logged onto in
Safe Mode by default has a blank password that you would want to make sure
is not the case on your computer if using XP Home. Any administrator
accounts need to have hard to guess passwords not known to other users.

Steve


Steven L Umbach said:
If the computer is XP Pro or XP Media you can take advantage of
restrictive NTFS permissions to folders and Software Restriction Policies
[though a somewhat advanced topic]. For XP Home you can also use NTFS
permissions. For Home or Pro you can also use the Shared Computer Toolkit
that is free from Microsoft that can make it fairly easy to lock down a
computer along with NTFS permission restrictions. The links below explain
more. For instance you can assign permissions to folders for only the
groups you want to access with the level of access you want such as
list/read/execute/modify. In such case you will need to remove
everyone/users/authenticated users from the permissions list and then make
sure only the users/groups you want are present. However do NOT try to
modify permissions for the \windows folder and subfolders as you can mess
up the operating system if you do not know exactly what you are doing.
Most applications are installed into the program files folder. Also when
assigning permissions understand that a lack of permissions is an implicit
deny and try to avoid deny permissions particularly for groups like
everyone/users/authenticated users as administrators are also members of
those groups. Windows Vista home/ultimate with parental controls will make
what you want to do pretty simple.

Steve

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308418 --- using
NTFS permissions
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/maintain/rstrplcy.mspx -
-- Software Restriction Policies
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/sharedaccess/default.mspx --- Shared
Computer Toolkit


Allie said:
How can I limit my employees to only the program they need to do their
job.
I have a stand alone computer and do not want them to access anything,
but
the program they need for my clients.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
On 26 Jan, 04:58, "Steven L Umbach" <[email protected]>
wrote:
[snip]
If the computer is XP Pro or XP Media you can take advantage of restrictive WindowsVistahome/ultimate
with parental controls will make what you want to do pretty simple.
Click to expand...

[in response to the original question below]
I need to buy a Vista PC to replace the XP PC that offers a public
drop-in facility for our village. The "Shared Computer Toolkit" has
done a decent job of allowing pretty unfettered use, whilst protecting
me (as administrator) from having to do much maintenance.

I've particularly liked the fact that the Shared Computer Toolkit
means I can allow users to install a program for one-time use or
download material that I haven't vetted, but have all of that cleaned
out on next reboot. I know that Goback could be set to do nearly the
same - but crucially it can't (as far as I know) cope with updates for
Windows itself and Antivirus - so each time the PC booted up, it would
end reloading the cumulative set of updates since the original setup.
Over time that would become a real problem.

Can anyone point me to a clear explanation of how far Parental
Controls, or other features, in Vista will provide what I need?

Thanks

John Geddes
England
 
With the versions of Vista that contain Parental Controls you can create a
user account and then configure Parental Controls for that user account
while not impacting user accounts that do not have Parental Controls applied
and different user accounts can have different Parental Control permission
levels. When you configure Parental Controls you can be shown list of all
applications installed on the computer and then you can just check those
that you want the user to access. Another very powerful feature of Parental
Controls is web filtering content. For example you can specify a specific
list of URLs that the user can access or deny the user access to any
internet content.

Steve


On 26 Jan, 04:58, "Steven L Umbach" <[email protected]>
wrote:
[snip]
If the computer is XP Pro or XP Media you can take advantage of
restrictive WindowsVistahome/ultimate
with parental controls will make what you want to do pretty simple.
Click to expand...

[in response to the original question below]
I need to buy a Vista PC to replace the XP PC that offers a public
drop-in facility for our village. The "Shared Computer Toolkit" has
done a decent job of allowing pretty unfettered use, whilst protecting
me (as administrator) from having to do much maintenance.

I've particularly liked the fact that the Shared Computer Toolkit
means I can allow users to install a program for one-time use or
download material that I haven't vetted, but have all of that cleaned
out on next reboot. I know that Goback could be set to do nearly the
same - but crucially it can't (as far as I know) cope with updates for
Windows itself and Antivirus - so each time the PC booted up, it would
end reloading the cumulative set of updates since the original setup.
Over time that would become a real problem.

Can anyone point me to a clear explanation of how far Parental
Controls, or other features, in Vista will provide what I need?

Thanks

John Geddes
England
Click to expand...
 
Back
Top