Setting up computer for son, one log on, or me as admin-him as limited? (1 Viewer)

[Luke_Y]

Setting up computer for son (12 yo), one log on, or me as admin-him as limited?

I know that for security purposes its recommended that you not use your computer logged in with an admin account. Only logging in as admin to install programs, make changes etc.

But... On our main computer I have two accounts set up. My wife and I share a log on with admin rights, and my son has a log on with limited rights. It seems that about half the games my son plays require the user to be logged in to an admin account and I am constantly having to let him log in as me anyway.

He will be the only user on this computer and I dont want to have to go up and log in as me every time he needs it for a program or game.

Accepting that he may plunder around in areas and folders he shouldn't, possibly screwing things up... Should I just leave it with one account (admin) to save the hassle, or is that just asking for trouble?

 

[Richard Travale]

He's 12 years old. Just tell him exactly what he can and can't do (leave a list of folders that are forbidden).
Then if he messes with the wrong stuff, knowing full well what he is and isn't allowed to do, then take away his computer privileges.

Of course if you are also talking about online use then I would invest in a net nanny type program.

This could be a perfect chance to give your son the old responsibility/consequences lesson. He may surprise you.

 

[StevenFC]

Just set him up with permissions on those particular files or folders. You'll need to turn off simple file sharing if it's turned on in order to set permissions.

 

[SethH]

Is it XP Pro or Home? If it's Pro, you can put him in the Power User group which would probably allow him to play all his games without any problem (I'm not 100% sure about this, but it works for lots of these issues).

Unfortunately, XP Home doesn't offer a power user group.

 

[Tekara]

If he is the only person using the computer, then I'd just go with one log on. The only person he can cause problems with is himself in that situation. Then to make things easy on you create a backup and anytime the computer becomes problematic, restore the backup.

 

[Max Leung]

If you give him admin rights, I wouldn't be surprised if you get a lot of spyware, adware, and trojans on the system. Heck, if adults can do it, so can kids.

I speak from experience when restoring a PC used by a 14 year-old girl. Yikes!

With that said, you probably don't have much of a choice when it comes to gaming. That really sucks. :frowning:

 

[Luke_Y]

OK, Thanks guys. A few follow up questions.

Richard, your's is the course I was leaning towards. He is as or more computer literate than many of the people I work with. On the net nanny, I actually have another thread seeking advice on that subject.

Steven, permissions- are you talking about password protecting system folders? Turning off simple file sharing- are you talking about just local file sharing, or network shares? If it's network sharing, that sort of defeats the purpose of our network.

Seth, his is XP home, the rest of ours are Pro. I'm only familiar with power users and permissions at work where those settings seem to be Novel settings. I've poked around on our XP Pro computers and cant find a power users setting just admin and limited. No matter really as his is XP Home anyway.

Rob, thanks for adding to this and the other thread. Don't wory I'll make it a point to do a backup every time I sit down at his computer.

Max, yep I'm hopeing that if I have to go the admin route whatever vermin ends up infecting his PC doesn't jump accross the network into our's....

 

[StevenFC]

Turning off simple file sharing allows you to set permissions on the files and folders that your son wants to use. Without them he'll keep having to do a "run as" on the files with you putting in your password every time. If you just give him full control over the folders that his games are in for instance, then he won't need your input.

However, if you have a network where you share folders, then you'll have to set permissions on those folders as well to give other users on other computers access. With simple file sharing you don't need to set any permissions.

System files are already inaccessible to your son by default if he's a limited user.

I haven't used XP home in ages so I can't remember how much configuring you can do, but with XP Pro you can pretty much prevent him from doing anything that you don't want him to--including surfing the Internet. It's a bit of work and nothing is fool proof. But if you set it up properly you can make it work.

I would go with Richards idea myself. Working with permissions can be a little tricky. Hopefully you can trust your own flesh and blood not to disobey you.

Addendum:
Now that I think of it, I believe you can set permissions and then turn simple file sharing on again without affecting the permission settings.

 

[Tekara]

Just had a idea: at work we use a program on our computers called deepfreeze, this program basically takes a snapshot of the computer and whenever the computer is restarted it is reverted back to the snapshot. Works great at keeping away simple things like spyware and helps prevent major problems like deletion of critical files.

With the program you can also create a "thawspace" which is a virtual hard drive that isn't wiped on reset. That way they can still download files and save school projects to the computer.

If he wants to install a game it'll require your okay which works out pretty good in the long wrong since you'll know everything on that computer.