Blocking Downloads using XP???
 

:?: I have just installed a clean version of Win XP Home ed. SP1a on my new 80gb hdd, my system is a HP Pavilion XE748 w/700mhz processor and 320mb ram.

Is there a feature or option that I can “activate� so no other users can download anything to my machine without a password or something along those lines?

I had to install a new hdd and Win XP b/c my old hdd and win me were ruined, corrupted or something. I feel it was b/c one of the other users downloaded Kaaza and some other programs to share files and so he could go look at porn video clips, etc. I don’t care if he wants to look at porn; however, I do not want anything downloaded to my machine.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Re: Blocking Downloads using XP???
 

When you allow someone interactive logon rights to a PC, you essentially grant them certain basic functionality. There are some software packages out there for restricting things, but I doubt you'd get the result you want and I can't think of any names off hand. They're used a lot in campus situations to prevent workstation damage. If you use xp's restore point feature, you can at least take the machine back to a point in time before it was corrupted. My favorite solution to this sort of thing is to use slide in hard drive bays. That way you can share a machine and each have your own hard drive. Then take it with you when you go. :)

Re: Blocking Downloads using XP???
 

go to control panel ,Users and create a new acct with limited axcess,then make sure you passworded you Admin acct.and your acct ,.

Re: Blocking Downloads using XP???
 

Yes, creating an account which is a member of "Restricted Users" should prevent the user from installing programs.

You can also get some pretty fine granularity of control over many security-related aspects of the system through snap-ins in the management console (on XP Pro at least, not sure about the Home edition). Click the "Run..." option under your Start menu, type "mmc" (omit the quotes) and hit enter to open the console. In the File menu, choose "add/remove snap-in" and then click the "Add" button in the resulting window. That will bring up a list of modules which you can use to manage the policies for several different aspects of your computer.

Re: Blocking Downloads using XP???
 

The only thing you can do to restrict a user in xp home is to make it a limited user account. This however does not prevent downloads and it does break a lot of other applications.

Re: Blocking Downloads using XP???
 

Grrr.. I was afraid that would be the situation with XP Home. Still, while a Restricted user account might allow downloads, does it not prohibit the actual installation of downloaded (and other) porgrams? I was under the impression that it did.

Re: Blocking Downloads using XP???
 

It does, and no doubt offers some level of security, but since a lot of this garbage out there today finds ways to circumvent that siv we call MS security, I don't have a lot of faith in it. But I think a bigger problem is the number of applications that won't work at all for a limited user, mine included :( .

Re: Blocking Downloads using XP???
 

Granted, and agreed.



Yes- unfortunatley, I've run into that problem as well. The restrictions are too "global" in that aspect with a normal stand-alone, multi-user computer; you just can't get the finer levels of permission controls that you could in something like a domain environment. Too bad MS decided to make it that way...

Re: Blocking Downloads using XP???
 

They'll have it fixed by the 5th major OS release. That's how long it took to migrate from dos-based Windows to NT-based Windows... (3.1, 95, 98, ME)

Re: Blocking Downloads using XP???
 

heheheh they DID fix it. This is the FIX! :evil: