How: Disable A Few Options In WinXP Limited A/c ?

dhanesh

Mar 24 2006, 07:26 AM

Where i work .. my PC is shared with a student club of my campus .. We use WinXP .. and i have made my account as the Admin and theirs as Limited.

I wanted to disable the following on the Limited account:
1) Installation of any software
2) Disable Windows Media Player
3) Disable change of themes or wallpaper etc
4) Disable changing time.
5) Disable the use of Windows Messenger ( tho they shouldent be able to install MSN Messenger)
6) Disable the use of Internet in a way that they can only use outlook to send and receive mails but not browse the inetrnet.
7) Last but not the least, Is there a Log keeper as to see what pages they visit or what do they do with a time stamp ? .. not a Keylogger ! .. but a log like what program they've opened etc.

These guys have really started to annoy me lately by installing stuff on the PC and slowing it down, plus since this place where i work comes under Government, every net usage is monitored. Telling them isnt an option, i give up, but when m not in office they make such usage of the internet, so i fear that i could get in trouble as the computer belongs to me.

Regards
Dhanesh.

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sparx

Mar 24 2006, 08:55 AM

First, make sure that users other than yourself are described as GUESTS and not just USERS. GUESTS have the least privileges on Win XP.

QUOTE

I wanted to disable the following on the Limited account:

1) Installation of any software

This is more dependent on the software installer program, if it specifies that the program can be installed without Admin privileges required, then you're out of luck

QUOTE

2) Disable Windows Media Player

You can uninstall WMP entirely. Or use widely available software to password-protect the EXE. So when a user tries to run the EXE, he must enter the correct password or the EXE won't run at all.

Example - LockAnExe

It's freeware and untested by me. There are many other shareware apps out there which will work well in this regard.

QUOTE

3) Disable change of themes or wallpaper etc

Enable Wallpaper REG File
Disable Wallpaper REG File

QUOTE

4) Disable changing time.

This should be configurable in the "Limited Users" properties page.

QUOTE

5) Disable the use of Windows Messenger ( tho they shouldent be able to install MSN Messenger)

You can configure your firewall (like ZoneAlarm) to disallow MSN Messenger from conneting to the Net. Then password-protect the options in ZA, so no one else can change them.

QUOTE

6) Disable the use of Internet in a way that they can only use outlook to send and receive mails but not browse the inetrnet.

Again, with ZoneAlarm, disable access for browsers like Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera etc.

Or, you can edit the connetion options of the various browsers to point them to access the Net thru incorrect proxy servers. In IE > TOOLS > OPTIONS > CONNECTIONS. Click the LAN SETTINGS button and enter some random IP address like 192.168.3 (some IP NOT on your local network) and a random port other than 80 (the default). Of ourse, if the user is smart he might just disable this option and proceed.

QUOTE

7) Last but not the least, Is there a Log keeper as to see what pages they visit or what do they do with a time stamp ? .. not a Keylogger ! .. but a log like what program they've opened etc.

I'll search around for something that might suit your needs in this case.

I suggest you keep an image (Norton Ghost or Acronis TrueImage) of your hard disk, so it's easy to revert when things get screwed up. If you use software like GoBack, you can set an automatic revert which will revert your HDD's state after a reboot or a preset time.

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sparx

Mar 24 2006, 11:38 AM

I wanted to add:

Use the Group Policy Editor when in Admin mode to effect changes in an easier fashion. START > RUN gpedit.msc

I also recommend using X-Setup, the last freeware version is 6.3 which allows customization of hundreds of options in a safe manner with the ability for a user to rollback changes made.

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dhanesh

Mar 24 2006, 12:06 PM

thankx sparkx that was quick .. the reason i would be asking really dumb questions now is cause i dunt have access to the PC i need to make changes on .. i will go to work on sunday so that time i'll have hands on the PC and see if i can do sumthing with it.

U said i needed to change the account type to guest rite ? .. how do i change a limited user a/c to guest a/c ...

I guess installation of a software will have some settings in windows admin panel .. cause in my college they have disabled installation of every software possible .. lol so thats how i know this is possible ..

I'd rather go with uninstalling WMP .. but how ? i tried doing that i think .. and i couldent find it in add/remove prog .. where else could i uninstall it ... but isnt there a way to disable it for use to another user ? i dunt want to uninstall it completely ..

I'll check out the solution to wallpaper change .. is there a solution to disable right click and properties so they cannot change the theme too ?

Disabling time means that when they double click on time in the taskbar .. it should provide them a message that u do not have sufficiant rights cause these guys install programs and stuff and change the time and date.
ALSO, this is a new one .. can i disable the speaker volume change in taskbar ? i dunt want volume enabled .. but every morning i come and the volume is high ! ughhh ...

for the 5th and 6th step u mentioned zone alarm .. so does this mean that if i install zone alarm on admin ... and get into their account and disable certain programs that connect to the net and browsers etc .. can i add a password to it ? as in i dunt want those smart@sses to change those settings already made .. does zone alarm provide this feature ?

M just d'loading x-setup and gona check it out .. thanks for the lead .. please tell me if there are any more softwares that make things like security and account blocking easier ..

Regards
Dhanesh.

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sparx

Mar 24 2006, 03:20 PM

Dhanesh:

I've got ZA Pro and it does have an option to lock down the prefs with a password.

Type Start > RUN control userpasswords2 to open the User Accounts options.

Select the user and click Properties. Then click the 2nd tab - GROUP MEMBERSHIP and the last option OTHER - among the various profiles, pick GUEST. In Win XP, GUEST has the least privileges.

The theme page can be disabled from the Group Policy Editor. You just have to dig thru all the various options. (Hint: it ought to be in Control Panel-Display)

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sparx

Mar 24 2006, 03:34 PM

Dhanesh - In response to your problem re: disabling time changes, by default Guests and Users can't make the changes. Only Power Users and Admins can.

====== Volume Control =======

Use a command line util like -url=http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/nircmd.html]NirCMD[/url] to set the volume to a desired level. You can then place this shortcut in your startup folder or on your desktop, so you can easily mute / set levels as desired.

If your users aren't smart enough, you might even consider hiding the Volume COntrol icon from the tray are thru the Sounds / Multimedia Contol Panel applet

===To disable Windows Media Player ===
In Group Policy Editor, navigate your way to the following entry:

LOCAL COMPUTER POLICY > USER CONFIGURATION > ADMINISTRATIVE TEMPLATES > SYSTEM

Double-click the entry in the right-side pane DON'T RUN SPECIFIED WINDOWS APPLICATIONS.

Select ENABLE and then click SHOW...
In the next box, click ADD and type in wmplayer.exe and click OK
Also add mplayer.exe and mplayer2.exe

That ought to prevent people from starting up WMP and all its iterations. Note that a knowledgeable person can just download the far more capable Media Player Classic or VLCPlayer and play media on the PC.

Add all the EXEs that you want users NOT to access.

Alternately, there's another policy which allows users to access ONLY certain specified EXEs - this is IMHO far more dangerous as you might end up just locking yourself out.

== In all instances, make a backup copy of your registry or take a system restore snapshot before implementing changes ==

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sparx

Mar 24 2006, 06:11 PM

Keylogger / Activity Log:

Have a look at the freeware section on Snapfiles.com for a wide range of free activity recorders. Some will also take screenshots at regular intervals. Based on your OP and requirements cited therein, I recommend you give TracksRevealer a try...

QUOTE

TracksRevealer is an easy to use PC history analysis tool. It will reveal previous website visits as well as documents and files opened by users on your PC. Using the program, you can get a quick overview of what happened on your PC while you where gone. Web sites and files can be launched from the report interface to take a closer look. Results can also be saved to a text file.

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dhanesh

Mar 24 2006, 06:50 PM

Hey sparx, thankx for all that info .. will check out everything u mentioned on sunday at office. I hope i can give those guys as limited access as possible. The slow PC start and all those programs running at start up really annoys a person in the morning lol ..

Will check these tweaks and post up further on sunday .. thanks again

Regards
Dhanesh.

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