Windows 7: Setup standard account

I'm a 7 newbie. I wish to setup a standard account without password for visitors. I will employ parental controls to limit access to most programs. How do I edit the Start menu of the newly created standard account so that the restricted programs are not visible? At the moment, the Start menu in standard account is the same as in Administrator account. Thanks.

Welcome to the Forum,

Use the guest account, its there for the very purpose that you need.

Sorry that I had to leave, but I wanted to find our outstanding tutorial on the guest account.

Guest Account - Turn On or Off

Thanks for the response. As I understand things, the guest acount won't work since it does not support parental control. Parental control is required to block programs that I don't want visitor to access.

You can use a standard account and you can limit use of programs with permissions and ownership, as an alternative to the Parental Controls.

How to Take Ownership and Grant Permissions in Windows Vista My Digital Life

It is the same for Vista and Windows 7

The ownership and permissions work equally well in a guest account.

This tutorial may help, to some extent.

Start Menu All Programs - Add or Delete Shortcuts

Thanks again. Wow, that sounds complicated and tedious. Why would I go that route when the Parental Controls option of a Standard user account automates the process of restricting control to programs (by checking off only the ones you want to give access to)?

There is no reason that you should not use parental controls. I was trying to show you the various methods available, since I do not know of a way to change the start menu, other than the way that is shown in the above link. If others come by they may have suggestions that will more fully accomodate your needs. If no one else comes by, you have the various methods, that I know of, that can resolve your problem. I agree the easiest appears to be the use of Parental Controls.

Hello prroots, welcome to Seven Forums!


Have a look at the tutorial at the link below.

Parental Controls - Allow or Block Specific Programs

Thanks for the reply. Yes, I am able to use Parental Controls to block access to selected programs (ie, unchecked ones). My question is how to edit the Start menu for the Standard user account so the blocked programs are not visible.

Go to the respective user account folder and remove the shortcuts/folders.

C:\Users\guest\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu

You have to do this as an Admin or your created admin accnt.