How do I disable Admin fuctions in Windows 7?

0pTicaL · 15 Feb 2012

When I visited Best Buy the other day they were running ads on their notebooks and I noticed that all the typical keyboard functions does not work (i.e. ctrl+alt+del, alt+tab, etc.)

How can I disable all admin functions on my laptop so when I have guests over they cannot mess with my settings? I only want them to be able to surf the web and nothing else. They cannot install or download anything, cannot use windows key + R to access regedit, or use ctrl+alt+del.

Can this be done within Windows 7 or do I need a special program for this?

Dave Atkin · 15 Feb 2012

Hello,

This can be done via gpedit.msc. See the below link:
Prevent Users From Running Certain Programs | Technipages

Note:
I would read up about this before using it as changes could result in you not being able to open things as well.

Dave

vaidas3 · 15 Feb 2012

0pTicaL said:

When I visited Best Buy the other day they were running ads on their notebooks and I noticed that all the typical keyboard functions does not work (i.e. ctrl+alt+del, alt+tab, etc.)

How can I disable all admin functions on my laptop so when I have guests over they cannot mess with my settings? I only want them to be able to surf the web and nothing else. They cannot install or download anything, cannot use windows key + R to access regedit, or use ctrl+alt+del.

Can this be done within Windows 7 or do I need a special program for this?

there is more than one way to do what you want (if i understand correctly what you want)
easy one would be to create limited account for guests, it has most of the administrator functions (such as regedit) disabled by default.
another way is to use local group policy editor
Open the Start menu, and type gpedit.msc in the search line and press Enter.
you will see local group policy editor there you can disable many things (there is so many settings that its easy to get lost for inexperienced user so be careful)
you can disable ctrl+alt+del functions like this (see attached pictutre with remove task manager enabled)
in picture you can see that task manager is removed
you will not be able to see task manager option when ctr+alt+del is clicked and on task bar context menu task manager option will be not active.
explore for more options you can configure many settings in there

read this
Group Policy - Apply to a Specific User or Group
how to apply policy for specific users, be careful do not disable things for your self :)

Victek · 15 Feb 2012

0pTicaL said:

When I visited Best Buy the other day they were running ads on their notebooks and I noticed that all the typical keyboard functions does not work (i.e. ctrl+alt+del, alt+tab, etc.)

How can I disable all admin functions on my laptop so when I have guests over they cannot mess with my settings? I only want them to be able to surf the web and nothing else. They cannot install or download anything, cannot use windows key + R to access regedit, or use ctrl+alt+del.

Can this be done within Windows 7 or do I need a special program for this?

You could create a new "standard user" account for your guests and password protect your own. That way anything that is attempted that requires Admin privileges will require your password (make sure UAC is On) This won't restrict them to the web browser exclusively, but it will prevent changes to your profile and to system settings. For the greater lock-down you describe you would need to use the group policy editor.

0pTicaL · 19 Feb 2012

Thank you for the suggestions guys, I'm going to do some research on gpedit.msc before making any changes. Time to hit the digital books.

0pTicaL · 24 Feb 2012

I decided to use parental controls on the new Guest account and disabled all programs from running since I only need one program to run (Windows Photo Viewer).

Works like a charm.