Can I lockdown computer with XP and Leechblock?
December 23, 2008 8:06 AM Subscribe
How do I prevent family member from procrastinating preventing video games and IM tools using Win XP and limiting surfing using Firefox tool- Leechblock?
I'm looking for fellow Metas to help me out. I've been able to control my own time-wasting ways in periods where I need to buckle down. When I was studying for a major exams, I had my wife put a password on internet explorer and I used LeechBlock for Firefox. This gave me access only to certain websites which I needed to study and the free surfing time was set to 3 hrs/wk max which made me stop procrastinating during that critical period. However, I have a family member who this would work for but he would be tempted to just play video games instead. Will power is the obvious solution but he wants the tools to aid him (like I used). Does anyone out there know if there's a free solution for Win XP that will allow me to 1) Block him from opening up any other programs than I specify (he could block MSN, AIM, and video games this route) 2) Prevent him from making changes to the date/time (workaround for LeechBlock) 3) Prevent him from installing new programs/games
I've seen this type of lockdown on running applications or installing software on various school/office computers and it looks like its just windows without any other software running but I'm unsure if this is possible and how to accomplish it. Any advice is greatly appreciated.
I'm looking for fellow Metas to help me out. I've been able to control my own time-wasting ways in periods where I need to buckle down. When I was studying for a major exams, I had my wife put a password on internet explorer and I used LeechBlock for Firefox. This gave me access only to certain websites which I needed to study and the free surfing time was set to 3 hrs/wk max which made me stop procrastinating during that critical period. However, I have a family member who this would work for but he would be tempted to just play video games instead. Will power is the obvious solution but he wants the tools to aid him (like I used). Does anyone out there know if there's a free solution for Win XP that will allow me to 1) Block him from opening up any other programs than I specify (he could block MSN, AIM, and video games this route) 2) Prevent him from making changes to the date/time (workaround for LeechBlock) 3) Prevent him from installing new programs/games
I've seen this type of lockdown on running applications or installing software on various school/office computers and it looks like its just windows without any other software running but I'm unsure if this is possible and how to accomplish it. Any advice is greatly appreciated.
Response by poster: The question should have read "How do I prevent a family member from procrastinating by block video games and IM tools using XP and limiting surfing using my Firefox/Leech block combo?" Sorry for the confusion.
posted by InvestorMD at 8:09 AM on December 23, 2008
posted by InvestorMD at 8:09 AM on December 23, 2008
Uninstall the games, hide his install disks until he's done.
posted by chrisamiller at 8:12 AM on December 23, 2008
posted by chrisamiller at 8:12 AM on December 23, 2008
Create a limited user account for him. Dont tell him the administrator password and then remove his "read" permissions from c/program files/games. "Games" being whatever folder they are installed in. The group you want to remove rights from will probably computername/users.
If he wants to play you can log him in as administrator.
posted by damn dirty ape at 8:16 AM on December 23, 2008
If he wants to play you can log him in as administrator.
posted by damn dirty ape at 8:16 AM on December 23, 2008
Cripple his games. Uninstall the video drivers. It'll be less work to reinstall those later than to reinstall all the games (and you won't risk his saved games that way). Oh and you'll probably have to take away his admin access so he doesn't reinstall the games himself.
On a semi relevant sidenote, switching to linux helped break my gaming addiction. I had windows when I started college. I'd start up counterstrike "just for a couple rounds" and ended up playing for hours. When I ran linux, I had to boot to windows to play games. Booting to windows was *bad*. I didn't want to do it. I ended up booting windows for a couple hours of designated game time and then going back to linux. It made separating game time from work time much easier for me. Now it's rare that I'll game more than once a week.
posted by valadil at 8:49 AM on December 23, 2008
On a semi relevant sidenote, switching to linux helped break my gaming addiction. I had windows when I started college. I'd start up counterstrike "just for a couple rounds" and ended up playing for hours. When I ran linux, I had to boot to windows to play games. Booting to windows was *bad*. I didn't want to do it. I ended up booting windows for a couple hours of designated game time and then going back to linux. It made separating game time from work time much easier for me. Now it's rare that I'll game more than once a week.
posted by valadil at 8:49 AM on December 23, 2008
Create a limited user account for him; let's call that "Frank".
Using a cmd window from your admin account, run the following commands to create a Gamers security group, to which everybody who is allowed to run games belongs:
Next, change the NTFS permissions on those subfolders of Program Files containing game software so that instead of Users having Read and Execute permissions for those folders, only Gamers have Read and Execute permissions.
You can control the permissions on any file by right-clicking the file, selecting Properties, then clicking on the Security tab. If you don't have a Security tab on file or folder property sheets, you need to do one of two things depending on whether you're running XP Home or Professional.
For XP Professional: open a Windows Explorer window, then select Tools->Folder Options->View; scroll down to the bottom and turn off Simple File Sharing.
For XP Home: run the "Security for folders and files" patch from this website.
Now you can use
to lock Frank out of gaming, and
to let him back in. Put a couple of little .cmd files containing those commands on your admin account's desktop, and you can do it with a double-click.
posted by flabdablet at 3:29 PM on December 23, 2008
Using a cmd window from your admin account, run the following commands to create a Gamers security group, to which everybody who is allowed to run games belongs:
net localgroup Gamers /add
net localgroup Gamers Frank InvestorMD Grandma SpotTheDog /add
Next, change the NTFS permissions on those subfolders of Program Files containing game software so that instead of Users having Read and Execute permissions for those folders, only Gamers have Read and Execute permissions.
You can control the permissions on any file by right-clicking the file, selecting Properties, then clicking on the Security tab. If you don't have a Security tab on file or folder property sheets, you need to do one of two things depending on whether you're running XP Home or Professional.
For XP Professional: open a Windows Explorer window, then select Tools->Folder Options->View; scroll down to the bottom and turn off Simple File Sharing.
For XP Home: run the "Security for folders and files" patch from this website.
Now you can use
net localgroup Gamers Frank /deleteto lock Frank out of gaming, and
net localgroup Gamers Frank /addto let him back in. Put a couple of little .cmd files containing those commands on your admin account's desktop, and you can do it with a double-click.
posted by flabdablet at 3:29 PM on December 23, 2008
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by blue_beetle at 8:08 AM on December 23, 2008