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General discussion

USER ACCOUNTS

Jun 3, 2005 8:09AM PDT

Help,

i need to create an user account for an user who should be able to run only one program on his computer. So, nothing available and nothing on his desktop except a shortcut for that program. Which is the easiest way to do that?

Discussion is locked

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(NT) (NT) Guest Account
Jun 3, 2005 8:56AM PDT
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There isn't
Jun 3, 2005 9:48AM PDT

If the person knows how, they can run other programs, and there's really not a whole lot you can do about it.

Best you can do, is create a limited account (I'd advise against the guest account, it's looked for by intrusion programs) where through the use of TweakUI or a similar tool, you've removed all desktop icons (except the one) and you've made the task bar smaller. This won't stop someone from pressing Window-R to get a Run dialog box, or Ctrl-Shift-Esc to get the Task Manager which also lets you access the Run dialog box. There are some tricks for limiting access to those things, but they aren't as well documented as you might hope.

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User accounts
Jun 3, 2005 10:26AM PDT

There is now way using just Windows, as there is a loophole for just about everything. You're best bet would probably to create a limited user account and then download a child restriction program, such as CyberPatrol. Just make sure the program can also block access to certain folders, prevents registry changes, and disables things such as the run dialog and shortcut keys. However, I enjoy spending time finding ways of getting around such programs/blocks. If I can do it for fun, someone truly serious about accessing your system can do it too.

Hope this helps,
John