I am passing an XP Pro computer down to my teen age son for playing games,
etc.
If I make him a member of the Users group, can he install games, but not
tamper with any system files?

No. He will need to be at least a Power User to install programs. Even then,
installs may not work.

and most savvy teens will bypass any protection you put in place.

"Mike" <mikey117********.com> wrote in message
news:uP$o8C6GHHA.4804@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> I am passing an XP Pro computer down to my teen age son for playing games,
> etc.
> If I make him a member of the Users group, can he install games, but not
> tamper with any system files?
>
>

"DL" <address@invalid> wrote in message
news:OUpb3a6GHHA.1080@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> and most savvy teens will bypass any protection you put in place.
>
> "Mike" <mikey117********.com> wrote in message
> news:uP$o8C6GHHA.4804@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>> I am passing an XP Pro computer down to my teen age son for playing
>> games,
>> etc.
>> If I make him a member of the Users group, can he install games, but not
>> tamper with any system files?
>>
Then I am open for suggestions.
If I create a restore point, will I always be able to go back to it?

Mike wrote:
> "DL" <address@invalid> wrote in message
> news:OUpb3a6GHHA.1080@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>> and most savvy teens will bypass any protection you put in place.
>>
>> "Mike" <mikey117********.com> wrote in message
>> news:uP$o8C6GHHA.4804@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>>> I am passing an XP Pro computer down to my teen age son for playing
>>> games,
>>> etc.
>>> If I make him a member of the Users group, can he install games, but not
>>> tamper with any system files?
>>>
> Then I am open for suggestions.
> If I create a restore point, will I always be able to go back to it?
>
>

Not necessarily. Better get Acronis and make an image. Check it out at:

www.acronis.com

Alias

Mike

Given that restore points are usually automatically created every
24 hours it will be overwritten when the allocated space for
system restore is full.

I would let the lad have his freedom. If he messes things up he loses
the use of the computer until it gets fixed. Best way to learn. Just
make sure you have the XP disk (including SP2 disk) and any other
programme disks safe.

--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England

Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


"Mike" <mikey117********.com> wrote in message
news:Odo21l6GHHA.4804@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>
> "DL" <address@invalid> wrote in message
> news:OUpb3a6GHHA.1080@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>> and most savvy teens will bypass any protection you put in place.
>>
>> "Mike" <mikey117********.com> wrote in message
>> news:uP$o8C6GHHA.4804@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>>> I am passing an XP Pro computer down to my teen age son for playing
>>> games,
>>> etc.
>>> If I make him a member of the Users group, can he install games, but not
>>> tamper with any system files?
>>>
> Then I am open for suggestions.
> If I create a restore point, will I always be able to go back to it?
>
>

Replied to [Mike]s message :
-----------------------------------------------------------
> "DL" <address@invalid> wrote in message
> news:OUpb3a6GHHA.1080@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>> and most savvy teens will bypass any protection you put in place.
>>
>> "Mike" <mikey117********.com> wrote in message
>> news:uP$o8C6GHHA.4804@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>>> I am passing an XP Pro computer down to my teen age son for playing
>>> games,
>>> etc.
>>> If I make him a member of the Users group, can he install games, but not
>>> tamper with any system files?
>>>
> Then I am open for suggestions.
> If I create a restore point, will I always be able to go back to it?

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/s...s/default.mspx

And install a KeyLogger, not for spying (hmm..may be) but the main reason is if
anything goes wrong, you can check the log to see what they did and you can revert
that thing back.

gOOd LuCk


--
Ayush [ :-) ]
-------------
Search - www.Google.com | Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org
Snip your long urls - http://snipurl.com/
-------------

Mike wrote:
> I am passing an XP Pro computer down to my teen age son for playing games,
> etc.
> If I make him a member of the Users group, can he install games, but not
> tamper with any system files?
>
>
Just to add on to the other replies: many game programs won't work
properly unless the user has Administrator privileges. I learned this
when I set up my 9 yr old daughter's computer. If you are worried about
unsupervised Web surfing, hook you child's computer to the Internet via
a router with a hardware firewall, and set the hardware firewall to
block port 80 on the child's connection. Of course, a savvy teen may be
able to defeat this measure.

GateKeeper wrote:
>
> Just to add on to the other replies: many game programs won't work
> properly unless the user has Administrator privileges. I learned this
> when I set up my 9 yr old daughter's computer.


That's not necessarily true, but it does require a little effort to
enable such poorly designed programs without compromising security.

You may experience some problems if the software was designed for
Win9x/Me, or if it was intended for WinNT/2K/XP, but was improperly
designed. Quite simply, the application doesn't "know" how to handle
individual user profiles with differing security permissions levels, or
the application is designed to make to make changes to "off-limits"
sections of the Windows registry or protected Windows system folders.

For example, saved data are often stored in a sub-folder under the
application's folder within C:\Program Files - a place where no
inexperienced or limited user should ever have write permissions. (Games
are particularly likely to follow this horrible practice.)

It may even be that the software requires "write" access to parts
of the registry or protected systems folders/files that are not normally
accessible to regular users. (This *won't* occur if the application is
properly written.) If this does prove to be the case, however, you're
often left with two options: Either explicitly grant normal users
elevated privileges to the affected folders and/or part(s) or the
registry, or replace the application with one that was properly designed
specifically for WinNT/2K/XP. I don't recommend the remaining option of
granting the users the broad, elevated privileges of an administrative
or power user account. This is often the easiest course of action, but
it's far from the safest.

Some Programs Do Not Work If You Log On from Limited Account
http://support.microsoft.com/default...;EN-US;q307091

Additionally, here are a couple of tips suggested, in a reply to a
different post, by MS-MVP Kent W. England:

"If your game or application works with admin accounts, but not with
limited accounts, you can fix it to allow limited users to access the
program files folder with "change" capability rather than "read" which
is the default.

C:\>cacls "Program Files\appfolder" /e /t /p users:c

where "appfolder" is the folder where the application is installed.

If you wish to undo these changes, then run

C:\>cacls "Program Files\appfolder" /e /t /p users:r

If you still have a problem with running the program or saving settings
on limited accounts, you may need to change permissions on the registry
keys. Run regedit.exe and go to HKLM\Software\vendor\app, where
"vendor\app" is the key that the software vendor used for your specific
program. Change the permissions on this key to allow Users full control."


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:
http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. -Bertrand Russell

Mike wrote:
> I am passing an XP Pro computer down to my teen age son for playing games,
> etc.
> If I make him a member of the Users group, can he install games, but not
> tamper with any system files?
>
>

That is probably true, but I find many applications will not run
properly under user permissions.

Best thing you can do is Supervise him and teach him what to do and what
not to do.

--
Priceless quotes in m.p.w.vista.general group:

"Price is actually no factor in piracy..." spoken by
Mike Brannigan

"But I'm not insulting people. I'm insulting Linux Loonies..."
spoken by Mike <no@where.man>

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spoken by Mike <no@where.man>

More great quotes here:
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Mike wrote:
> I am passing an XP Pro computer down to my teen age son for playing games,
> etc.
> If I make him a member of the Users group, can he install games, but not
> tamper with any system files?
>
>

That is probably true, but I find many applications will not run
properly under user permissions.

Best thing you can do is Supervise him and teach him what to do and what
not to do.

--
Priceless quotes in m.p.w.vista.general group:

"Price is actually no factor in piracy..." spoken by
Mike Brannigan

"But I'm not insulting people. I'm insulting Linux Loonies..."
spoken by Mike <no@where.man>

"No, I'm not sure. I was just making fun of Chad's typo."
spoken by Mike <no@where.man>

More great quotes here:
http://protectfreedom.tripod.com/kick.html

--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

Nina DiBoy wrote:

> Mike wrote:
>> I am passing an XP Pro computer down to my teen age son for playing
>> games, etc.
>> If I make him a member of the Users group, can he install games, but not
>> tamper with any system files?
>>
>>
>
> That is probably true, but I find many applications will not run
> properly under user permissions.

But for those you can always right click and Run As... to get elevated
permissions anyway. Besides, why use software that needlessly needs
elevated permissions? That's just bad practice.

> Best thing you can do is Supervise him and teach him what to do and what
> not to do.

In addition to using permissions, yes.

Nina DiBoy wrote:

> Mike wrote:
>> I am passing an XP Pro computer down to my teen age son for playing
>> games, etc.
>> If I make him a member of the Users group, can he install games, but not
>> tamper with any system files?
>>
>>
>
> That is probably true, but I find many applications will not run
> properly under user permissions.

But for those you can always right click and Run As... to get elevated
permissions anyway. Besides, why use software that needlessly needs
elevated permissions? That's just bad practice.

> Best thing you can do is Supervise him and teach him what to do and what
> not to do.

In addition to using permissions, yes.