Making your PC 'child-proof'

You know the scenario ...

Relatives are visiting with "Child from hell"
Young spoilt child wants to play on your PC.

2 hours later everything is destroyed:
* PC in crashed mode
* Icons and folders renamed with random characters
* Desktop all messed up
* Error messages all over the place
* CD tray hanging out

So, What I'm looking for is a program which can lock as much activity as possible, such as:

1) preventing files/folders from being renamed, moved, deleted
2) locking the keyboard to a limited amount of keys
3) no right-click mouse context menu
4) Lock CD tray
5) Limit which programs can be launched

Any suggestions?
I know I can create a guest account and restore points but you know how sucessful children are at breaking stuff.

I don't mind the brat (sorry, little angel) from playing a game but I don't want to come back an find the PC on it's knees begging to be put out of commision.

What I did in that case was to give the child from hell my old gameboy = problem solved. :)

I'd simply say: "Get lost kiddo, this is serious stuff for work, there ain't no games onit, and if something gets broken, it'll cost you or your dad $3000."

Learn to say 'no' :P

Even the most spoiled child should know that "NO!" means no. And I don't really care if his/her parents are upset about it. If they don't want to teach the kid the facts of life, someone else (in this case, me) will.

Barney

... tho the theme is interesting for a game :D "Child from hell" .. some huge house with things that are easy to break or fubar'ed.. and some kids around, and the player trying to prevent things from breaking. ^_^

Now if you would be able to run that game on your PC when you got those visitors, it could provide a 'silent hint' to them upon seeing it. ^_^

Remove your usual hard drive and have a special hard drive which gets used just when this particular child accesses the PC - if he buggers it up then he'll have to live with that next time he visits. Although it won't stop him breaking the CD drive.

I made a little slideshow with sounds and spelling game for my smallest boy that has disabled all windows keys so you can't get out of it. He can hit the keybaord all he wants, just needs a secret key combo to escape. Used blackjumpers dll thing.

Hello.

Drape vegetables and fruit over it???

Goodbye.

Can you tell me more about that?

I'm after some software which can provide many tamper-proofing safeguards as outlined in my main post.

I saw a keyboard lock solution in an Electrical store which flashes up a padlock in the corners of the screen when you press the keys. Any idea what program that is?

In some respects, I want to lock the PC into a very resticted mode so he can still load and play games but cannot mess around with any other data.

So, for example, any keyboard/mouse locking software needs to have user-defined 'allowable' actions such as Cursors, Return, Escape, Ctrl, and mouse LMB to remain working.

Just hide the screen and say its in for repairs.

Install Linux?

search the code archives for stickykeys.

ah here it is:

http://www.blitzmax.com/codearcs/codearcs.php?code=1334

Why not simply create a limited Windows XP user account ? You can tailor user access to whatever you want.

Tried that Ricky.

I can still delete folders, rename files, and the likes with a limited account.
I'm using WinXP Media edition. Perhaps the restrictions are only possible with Pro edition?

Any ideas how I can impose such restrictions?

Also, since I hate storing my docs/pics in 'Owner' locations (just in case WinXP goes belly up and I lose everything in C:) I keep my stuff in a separate partition. Problem is, all of this data is visible to a Guest/Limited account and I don't know how to hide it.

I've found a good program with over 500 restrictions which can be applied to individual accounts:

1st Security Agent

Stops most of the tampering done by another user.
I can now hide certain partitions and block/deny/allow access to individual programs.

Really nice!

Plus, it includes a nice screen-lock utility too.

I think I went to the Bender ( think Futurama, not Elton John ;) ) school of childcare, so keep that in mind when you check out my suggestion.

I think the solution to your problems is one of these. They're a tad pricy, but they're a good investment and will be right there waiting when other friends and family come to visit.

I do think the best thing is dont let the child from hell play on the PC.

Whenever my nephew comes round, hes allowed on the Xbox and my old protable, but not even allowed within ten feet of my work PC. If he messes the potable up, I just do a roolback.

This'll do the trick...

> Young spoilt child wants to play on your PC.

As Nancy Reagan once said "Just say no"

If he's a spoilt brat, tell him to bring his own pc or buy one on the way over to your place.

What the hell are the parents thinking when they bring kids up like this?

You may need to set file access permissions on the files/folders in question, to remove the ability for 'everyone' or 'all users' to modify them. By default, the non-pro versions are a bit too open.

Backup your harddrive as an image, then simply write it back to the harddrive as soon as they have left. If it's less than 9 gigs then use a dvd (depending on the writers capabilities), if it's more then copy the image to an external harddrive. This will at least not cost you much time and or nerves.

I'd reccomend TrueImage by Paragon. Works from a bootable floppy and can handle any drive size, allows to split images in 2 or 4 gigs pieces.

Hardware destruction may be an other issue.

For the amount of hassle involved protecting my PC I think I'll opt for the torture devices above (hehe)!

Seems this is not possible with XP Media edition. I have no 'Security Tab' when I right-click on a folder.
Even though I have Sharing set to "Do not share this folder" the folder is still visible in a Limited account. The user can thus do anything they like including deleting it. Grrr!
I guess the backup option is really my only choice.


Mmm, I have a master plan though ...

I create a fake O/S screen and simply pop up error messages like, "An error has occured. Please re-install Windows XP"

Sorted!

yeah, try to use this together wih the stickykeys dll. "Fatal Error: too many sticky fingers on keyboard! Please resinstall Windows XP"

usually when 'kid from hell' arrive, I'm using spray with such a horrible smell that you will run away no matter what..so, what I did, I use to spray all over one older keyboard, and just change it before 'monster' arrive...I did test on some small japanese bastard who use to pressingmy expensive Sony LCD monitor becouse he thinking its touch screen...smell was sooooo good that he didnt try to touch it again..EVER

plug the wire off and hide it, that does the job

Jim,

I used to train with a guy who didn't have a clue about PC's (this was a PC repair course!)- I used blitz3D to write a fake Windows desktop- printscreened it and made the Start Menu and clock work,

but when you clicked it, it had "Warning! <name> is near. Disabled!". ESC didnt get out of it, nor does ALT+ENTER, I had a shortcut key in there though for us know-hows, but you had to do it just right and not just slam the keys.

Guess where we put this beauty? in his start-up folder!!!! :D

Very naughty Cygnus but I like it!

Anyhow, I plan to pop this up after 5 mins which should do the trick ...

You spelt 'rename', 'interruption' and 'manner' wrong.

(Thought I'd better point it out before a child from hell does) ;)

(thanks .. fixed!)

I vote with the TASER... nothing like a cattle prod to keep wild children in line... And I have 10 years in hell... sorry Middle School (Art Teacher / Computer Teacher) to back that opinion up... ;)

Seriously... if this doesn't work... get an old 9-10 gig hdd and install windows 2k or something on it... the "Kiddie Disk" then after the monster messes it up you drag parents into room and say "My computer is trashed and I have a project due tomorrow... look what your insane idiot did to my computer!!!"

You probably need to amend that last statement to something more socially responsible but that would be the gist of it...

Still, what's wrong with the simplest of solutions? Just say "no". Just say 'no', and if the ki666 and his evil p666rents don't understand, well bad luck for 'em. Why all the troubles setting up 666-HD's, 666-OS'es and other useless crap .. No = No.

Hey, at least going forward it will be a lot easier to say no: "Sorry, you had a chance, and you ruined it for yourself."

TIP: You can get access to the Security Tab on Home and Media Centre XP by restarting into Safe Mode by hitting F8 (the tab should magically appear in the folder properties dialog)!

Just say no and set a password on your computer. So if the kid turns it on anyway, he/she wont get anywhere.

Ragnar

Well, I use Norton GoBack to fix the things that go wrong with my laptop (such as a copy-protected EMI cd inserting a rootkit onto the machine).

You can either let the CFH loose on the machine, and GoBack to system startup, or set the machine into sandbox mode, where all chnges are reverted at the end of the session.

Neil

Ha, yeah I did all that to...

built a timer, wrote a program that restricted every thing except its own window, included a timer, disabled close button, disabled short cut keys and all.

Plus installed that handy windows program, I think it was called Shared COmputer Toolkit or something. Did wonders. Disabled every thing, run link, hard drive link. Then there are registry things you can do to remove the my computer link and all.

A little detailed and involved to do on your own. Get a crappy gateway or eMachine, buissnesses are always throwing them away for new dells ;)

here is what you do, tell the bastard to go away and to come back when he/she can understand basic