Creating and Configuring New User Account

Until recently, my wife and I have been the only users of our laptops, so we've simply used the Administrator account to log in. We now have a 16-year-old granddaughter living with us, who uses my wife's computer (sure ain't using mine). She mostly just does Facebook and YouTube. When I recently returned from a trip, my wife said her computer was "messed up." An understatement indeed. I found ten infected files (mostly PUPs), six miscellaneous new toolbars, five newly installed programs I'd never heard of, and a mess of continuous popup ads. All this despite the fact the computer is (I thought) pretty well protected (Avast, MBAM, SpywareBlaster, Windows firewall) and has never before been infected. After an hour or so, I had everything cleaned up and back to normal.

So, to my problem: The OS is Win 7 Home Premium 64-bit. I want to creat a user account for the kid that will not allow any program downloads, installations, or system changes whatsoever. She isn't intentially trying to mess things up; she just doesn't understand some of the dangers of the internet. I know how to creat a user account, and know about the guest account, but not how to configure either for what I want to do, or even see what the default parameters are. Parental controls do not seem to cover this situation. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

With home editions of Windows there are only 2 types of account you can create, Administrator and Standard user. A standard user account cannot install or uninstall software or make system changes. The parental controls allow further control. All you need to know about the Guest account is to ensure that it is disabled.

An Administrator account you create in User Accounts has all the rights and privileges of the built in Administrator account. Recommended practice is to create one or more Administrator accounts for regular use and leave the built in Administrator account for emergencies. If you have only the built in Administrator account and for any reason you are unable to login to it (possibly because of a corrupt profile) then you have a serious problem.

So you're saying I can't change any settings of a Standard User account, or even see what they are?

The home editions of Window do not provide many options for configuring user accounts. The options available can be seen in the User Accounts in Control panel. The Professional and Ultimate editions provide more options but they would be thoroughly confusing to most home users and be of little value. They can be of great value in a corporate network but not for a home user. There are registry settings but unless you are a real expert and have a specific need these should be left alone.

A Standard user can make changes to their own account. They cannot make system wide changes that effect other users.

Your situation is such that the standard user account settings and parental controls should provide more than adequate control.