Security on home PC against minors

[Crisis]

Hi folks,

This is my first post on the forums but I have been following the forums for a long while. The Vista Movie maker and Vista Media player workarounds on Windows 7 are my personal favourites.

I am currently trying to secure my PC so that my siblings ( who are minors ) cannot view adult sites. I am the only Administrator and the rest of them are Standard account holders.

A mate recommended K9 to me and it's pretty good - you can set what categories of websites to block, what keywords to block and when something is blocked, a popup appears with the option to override it using an admin pswd. You can also monitor Internet activity. If you try to change the pswd using Forgot ur pswd trick, a temporary pswd is sent to a pre-specified email address. If you try to uninstall , you are again prompted for the pswd. Now, I have created a different email for this purpose and the password is secure as well.

-The problem is there are patches available to override or temporarily disable K9 and these are being used by my siblings. How can I prevent this ?
-They have also recently watched videos on youtube on how to use the hidden Admin account in Windows 7 and have used that to get my Admin account pswd!!! So, I also need to disable access to cmd and regedit. Again, how do I do this?


All help would greatly be appreciated. Btw, I am using Windows 7 Home Premium and am fairly geeky.

 

[LiquidSnak]

What browser are you using on the computer?

I would recommend uninstalling all but IE, and using content advisor to help block those sites, and setting their user accounts to no privilege accounts. Set UAC to a nice high setting.

we-blocker.com

Block Adult Sites

 

[Bill2]

1) Since you are using home premium, you cannot disable access to regedit and cmd via the gp editor, you'll need to tweak the registry. Heres how.

Regedit - Enable or Disable - Vista Forums

Disable or Enable Command Prompt in Windows 7

2) I dont about K9, but you can explore the windows family safety tool along with Parental controls.

Protecting your kids with Family Safety

 

[Spidey1976]

I have family safety running - it is not 100% but it helps and its free

 

[Borg 386]

I don't know if you want to pony up the $$$$, but I know Norton 360 has parental controls. I'm sure some of the other paid-for security suites have them too.

 

[Lunarpancake]

I've found that if you limit children to a few websites they are perfectly happy. In fact I find that children usually find one or two websites to frequent and those few websites become their online experience. They don't generally "surf". Depending on the ages of your children you can add safe websites to the filters in IE or Firefox and require a password to surf anywhere else. Being an administrator you can disable this when you log in.

 

[malexous]

Norton 360 does not provide parental controls anymore. The setting is a link for Norton Online Family which has an excellent free version.

 

[Crisis]

Thanks for the replies guys.

What browser are you using on the computer?

I would recommend uninstalling all but IE, and using content advisor to help block those sites, and setting their user accounts to no privilege accounts. Set UAC to a nice high setting.

we-blocker.com

Block Adult Sites

That won't be possible. Both me and them use Firefox heavily and we like the icon--> website toolbar that you can set in Firefox.
we-blocker.com >> Website not available
Block Adult Sites >> The softwares suggested will conflict with my current Antivirus ESET.

UAC is enabled.

1) Since you are using home premium, you cannot disable access to regedit and cmd via the gp editor, you'll need to tweak the registry. Heres how.

Regedit - Enable or Disable - Vista Forums

Disable or Enable Command Prompt in Windows 7

2) I dont about K9, but you can explore the windows family safety tool along with Parental controls.

Protecting your kids with Family Safety

I'll check out Live family safety. To disable regedit or cmd, do I have to give my siblings admin rights and then run it from their accounts and then downgrade them back to Standard ?

I've found that if you limit children to a few websites they are perfectly happy. In fact I find that children usually find one or two websites to frequent and those few websites become their online experience. They don't generally "surf". Depending on the ages of your children you can add safe websites to the filters in IE or Firefox and require a password to surf anywhere else. Being an administrator you can disable this when you log in.

That's not really an option in my case ... too many sites are there that can be added

If I upgarde to Win 7 Pro, will I have more control? And, how can I limit runninh of unauthorised .exe files ?

Thanks.

 

[Borg 386]

Norton 360 does not provide parental controls anymore. The setting is a link for Norton Online Family which has an excellent free version.

Really? I never played with mine, saw it mentioned but never explored it since I'm an adult....sort of.....

 

[Bill2]

To disable regedit or cmd, do I have to give my siblings admin rights and then run it from their accounts and then downgrade them back to Standard ?

Yes.

If I upgarde to Win 7 Pro, will I have more control?

Not really, though you'll be able to use the gpeditor to do all this stuff more easily.

And, how can I limit runninh of unauthorised .exe files ?

See method 4 on this page.

How to restrict users from installing programs in Windows 7 | The Windows Club

 

[LiquidSnak]

Forgive my broken link:

Safe Families We-Blocker Parental Control - Free software downloads and software reviews - CNET Download.com

Follow Bill's advise, as well. That will pretty much fool proof the computer.

 

[Crisis]

Hi

Just thought I would come back and update everyone on what I did.
I installed Win7Pro but found Group policy editing a bit difficult.

I installed Windows Steadystate and locked out features for my sibling's account such as Noa ccess to cmd, control panel, etc.

Then, I installed Symantec Parental Family control ( FREE ) and chose categories to block. Voila! all done.

 

[scr]

If you find that you are still in need of additional blocking have a look at OpenDNS
OpenDNS - Parental Controls: Block Adult Internet sites at Home It's free and rather easy to set up.