Removing programs from list - Guest ONLY

Both answers sound like it would help solve my problem. What I'm trying to do is keep those from being a choice so I like that Tyler's response sounds like it would do that.

My computer skills, however, are limited to very good as a user; very poor as a problem solver so I really don't understand how to get to HKEY_CURRENT_USER . . .

If you can direct me better, I certainly would appreciate. I know I have a lot of graphic software that no other user would really need access to. Without it showing in the list, it keeps my "BUSINESS" private so no one can fuss about my "junk" (LOL).

In your sentence "then you can go to the guest account: ex. C:\Documents and Settings\Guest\Start menu\Programs and you can specify what programs what user has access to." Will selecting Guest\Start Menu\Programs also show everything that is listed when the Guest user selects All Programs? I actually right clicked on Start, selected Explore and went to Guest, etc. but did not see all there that does appear when signed on as Guest.

Anything you can provide to help me better understand would be greatly appreciated. THANKS!

to get to the HKEY go to start>run> regedit. now, before you do that, you need to make the guest account admin, then log on to that guest account. to make it admin, go to control panel, user accounts, and click on Guest, change account type, and make it computer administrator. then logon to the Guest account. go to the HKEY i stated above and do what i stated in the other post, the NoCommonGroups thing. When that is done, hit F5(refresh) while still intthe registry editor, then close it, and go to start, All programs, and there should be a limited amount of programs there. it should have the Accessories folder, and maybe a few other things.

Now, still on the guest account, go to C:\Documents and Settings\Guest\Start Menu\Programs. in another window open C:\Program Files. then in the Program files, find what pgms you want the guest to have access to, and say the program is Spybot S & D, then locate that folder in the Program Files, open the Spybot folder, right click on the Spybot S & D.exe file, and select send to desktop as shortcut. do the same for all the programs you want on the guest account.
then go back to the window of Start Menu, Programs. then drag all the shortcuts you put on the desktop to the folder. close all the windows, and see if it works.

let me knwo

That option has one primary benefit over my suggestion: Most programs installed in the future will not appear on the Guest's Start Menu, whereas with mine you'd have to remove the shortcuts after each installation if you don't want them listed.

However, keep in mind that it still doesn't prevent the guest from browsing to C:\Program Files and launching the software from there.

John

so if you want to REALLY restrict users from running programs you can do the following.

logon to the guest account again, make sure it is still admin. go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies and make a new Key named disallowrun and in the Policies folder add a new DWORD called disallowrun and set the value to 1.

then go to the disallowrun folder. add a new String value named 1. double click the "1" and put the .exe you want to restrict. ex.

SpybotS&D.exe

then push enter. and do the same thing for all the other programs you dont want the Guest to run. But name each String value a different number: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and so on.

good luck

Sounds like no matter which option I choose, I've got my work cut out for me.

No worries. I may leave things as they are for now simply because it will be months before I have anyone that will need to use my computer.

Unfortunately for now, my time is consumed with trying to understand SwishMax! I'm in Marketing and we have provided LCD screens in our new office location, which requires ads. It's fun but it entails a lot that I know nothing about!

Again, thank you both for your help. I'll keep this bookmarked for reference and let you know how it goes.