Disabling App Installs with Win7 Home

[chaos]

Finally took the plunge and got a 3 pack Win7 Home.

I've done searches in google and on the forums and everything points me to Local Policy (which I have done for years with XPPro), which Home doesn't have.

I read about Parental control, problem is, I need to disable my wife/in laws from installing apps and from what I read that doesn't really prevent them from installing apps anyways.

Is there anyway to do it in Home edition? Not really concerned with wife/in laws as much as I am with kids. Although they only have access to Miniclip and handful of other sites, some of these apps/links/download/installs can get nasty.

Sorry for a newb question.

Also I've been using ProCon for Mozilla site control with WinXP Pro. Should I stick with that or does Win7 offer anything new as far as website access. I simply need to define which sites kids can access.

TIA

 

[Dzomlija]

Finally took the plunge and got a 3 pack Win7 Home.

I've done searches in google and on the forums and everything points me to Local Policy (which I have done for years with XPPro), which Home doesn't have.

I read about Parental control, problem is, I need to disable my wife/in laws from installing apps and from what I read that doesn't really prevent them from installing apps anyways.

Is there anyway to do it in Home edition? Not really concerned with wife/in laws as much as I am with kids. Although they only have access to Miniclip and handful of other sites, some of these apps/links/download/installs can get nasty.

Sorry for a newb question.

Also I've been using ProCon for Mozilla site control with WinXP Pro. Should I stick with that or does Win7 offer anything new as far as website access. I simply need to define which sites kids can access.

TIA

The best way to prevent others from installing applications is to setup seperate user accounts. your must be an "Administrator" account with a password, and that of your wife should be a "Limited" account, for which a password is no necessary.

Then, turn up UAC to it's maximum level (always a good idea this, even if you only have one user account). With UAC at it's maximum, whenever your wife is logs in with her user account, and then attempts to install software, she will be prompted for a password, which will be your user name and password.

No third-party software is required, as the facility is built-in to Windows 7 using the above technique...

 

[gregrocker]

Great advice, Dark Lord.

I use the Guest account for visitors for exactly this purpose, but his wife might not like being a Guest :sarc:

 

[Dzomlija]

Great advice, Dark Lord.

I use the Guest account for visitors for exactly this purpose, but his wife might not like being a Guest :sarc:

True, but I didn't mean the Guest account. I meant he should use an Administrator for himself, and a Standard account for his wife, which has a little more rights than Guest.

UAC is the best thing that happened to Windows since they made NTFS the standard harddisk filesystem!

 

[gregrocker]

I understood what you meant.

I was referring to my own experience using Guest account for visitors, but it's probably not wife-friendly.

 

[chaos]

THX for replies

She does have a standard user account. Trying it now, thanks!

Any advice on 2nd question?

 

[Bill2]

Win7 has the family safety download available (free from MS). That lets you block/allow specific websites.

Web Filtering With Windows Live Family Safety | Windows 7 Tutorials

 

[chaos]

Thank you very much, much appreciated.

I have a feeling since this is Windows live it won't require me to set it up on each machine...which is nice.

PS. I got a blue screen of death after my 2nd PC install. Happened on the back from sleep (I did notice I left a USB stick in and Steam running in the background). It came back fine....but kind of funny hehe

 

[gregrocker]

If you'll use the tool posted at the top of Crashes and Debugging forum, it will upload your blue screen Bugcheck file to zip up and post there. http://www.sevenforums.com/crashes-debugging/96879-blue-screen-death-bsod-posting-instructions.html

That forum is where the real geniuses hang out, and you'll know quickly what exactly caused this and how to fix or prevent it in the future.

 

[DeaconFrost]

but his wife might not like being a Guest :sarc:

Mine wouldn't. She'd assume I was trying to tell her something.