Vista Parental Controls Not Working

I can't get Parental Controls working in Vista. "Parental Controls" is "On"
for every account on my machine, but nothing is blocked. I get no errors.
Rebooting doesn't work. Manually adding sites to the "banned" list doesn't
work.

Thanks for your time.

To manage Parental Controls, open the Windows Control Panel, click "Set up
parental controls...", and consent to the security elevation box.

Select the user account that you want to manage. (If you don't have a
separate user account for each person who will regularly use the computer,
you should consider making one, as everything tends to work better that way).

Windows will let you turn Parental Controls on, and then manage more
detailed settings (for example, enforcing usage time limits or blocking
certain programs).

To test the parental controls, try blocking all games on your child's
account. Log out of your account, and log in under your child's account.
Try running "Solitaire" while logged in under your child's account.

If you get an error message while doing any of the steps above, post it
here, and we'll see if we can help you.


As an aside, actually trying to block every "bad" website is almost
impossible. The internet has many, many "bad" websites, and clever people
can find more than one way to access a website (for example, Firefox does not
currently obey any restrictions).

"joeUser" wrote:

> I can't get Parental Controls working in Vista. "Parental Controls" is "On"
> for every account on my machine, but nothing is blocked. I get no errors.
> Rebooting doesn't work. Manually adding sites to the "banned" list doesn't
> work.
>
> Thanks for your time.

I can block games; good test. Still cannot block any Web sites for any user.
I'm using the worst and most obvious Web sites for my tests; no luck. No
errors generated. Is there a panel which tracks errors that I can access?
(Yes, I'm doing all this as admin.)

"Jeff Smith [MSFT]" wrote:

> To manage Parental Controls, open the Windows Control Panel, click "Set up
> parental controls...", and consent to the security elevation box.
>
> Select the user account that you want to manage. (If you don't have a
> separate user account for each person who will regularly use the computer,
> you should consider making one, as everything tends to work better that way).
>
> Windows will let you turn Parental Controls on, and then manage more
> detailed settings (for example, enforcing usage time limits or blocking
> certain programs).
>
> To test the parental controls, try blocking all games on your child's
> account. Log out of your account, and log in under your child's account.
> Try running "Solitaire" while logged in under your child's account.
>
> If you get an error message while doing any of the steps above, post it
> here, and we'll see if we can help you.
>
>
> As an aside, actually trying to block every "bad" website is almost
> impossible. The internet has many, many "bad" websites, and clever people
> can find more than one way to access a website (for example, Firefox does not
> currently obey any restrictions).
>
> "joeUser" wrote:
>
> > I can't get Parental Controls working in Vista. "Parental Controls" is "On"
> > for every account on my machine, but nothing is blocked. I get no errors.
> > Rebooting doesn't work. Manually adding sites to the "banned" list doesn't
> > work.
> >
> > Thanks for your time.

Hmm, you can block games but not websites... strange.

If you manually type a specific address, like "http://www.example.com/" into
the blocked sites list, and then navigate to the same site in your child's
copy of Internet Explorer, does it show the site being blocked?

As to your other question: you can view a list of system errors and warnings
by opening the Start menu, typing in "Event viewer", and pressing Enter to
run the Windows event viewer utility.


"joeUser" wrote:

> I can block games; good test. Still cannot block any Web sites for any user.
> I'm using the worst and most obvious Web sites for my tests; no luck. No
> errors generated. Is there a panel which tracks errors that I can access?
> (Yes, I'm doing all this as admin.)
>
> "Jeff Smith [MSFT]" wrote:
>
> > To manage Parental Controls, open the Windows Control Panel, click "Set up
> > parental controls...", and consent to the security elevation box.
> >
> > Select the user account that you want to manage. (If you don't have a
> > separate user account for each person who will regularly use the computer,
> > you should consider making one, as everything tends to work better that way).
> >
> > Windows will let you turn Parental Controls on, and then manage more
> > detailed settings (for example, enforcing usage time limits or blocking
> > certain programs).
> >
> > To test the parental controls, try blocking all games on your child's
> > account. Log out of your account, and log in under your child's account.
> > Try running "Solitaire" while logged in under your child's account.
> >
> > If you get an error message while doing any of the steps above, post it
> > here, and we'll see if we can help you.
> >
> >
> > As an aside, actually trying to block every "bad" website is almost
> > impossible. The internet has many, many "bad" websites, and clever people
> > can find more than one way to access a website (for example, Firefox does not
> > currently obey any restrictions).
> >
> > "joeUser" wrote:
> >
> > > I can't get Parental Controls working in Vista. "Parental Controls" is "On"
> > > for every account on my machine, but nothing is blocked. I get no errors.
> > > Rebooting doesn't work. Manually adding sites to the "banned" list doesn't
> > > work.
> > >
> > > Thanks for your time.

My system has many errors, according to Event Viewer. Looks like my accounts
have gotten corrupted again. Example (one of many):
{Registry Hive Recovered} Registry hive (file):
'\??\C:\Users\Isaac\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\UsrClass.dat' was
corrupted and it has been recovered. Some data might have been lost.

Sigh. This is the second time I'll have to restore my drive since buying
this mess. Vista is _so_ frustrating!!!!! I user commercial virus protection,
Windows Defender, a good firewall, etc. Sheesh!!!!!

I'm sorry to hear that. This kind of corruption (as you probably realize)
can be fairly serious. It might be caused if your computer is shut off
forcibly (like in a power outage); or if your hard drive is silently
corrupting random data (happens more than people realize).

If the errors seem to be limited to c:\users\... , you don't have to
reinstall the whole OS. Just add a new user account and delete the old one
(transferring all your files first).



"joeUser" wrote:

> My system has many errors, according to Event Viewer. Looks like my accounts
> have gotten corrupted again. Example (one of many):
> {Registry Hive Recovered} Registry hive (file):
> '\??\C:\Users\Isaac\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\UsrClass.dat' was
> corrupted and it has been recovered. Some data might have been lost.
>
> Sigh. This is the second time I'll have to restore my drive since buying
> this mess. Vista is _so_ frustrating!!!!! I user commercial virus protection,
> Windows Defender, a good firewall, etc. Sheesh!!!!!

Ugh!!! Just like last time -- "Sorry, your Vista box has corrupt accounts.
Probably other problems, too. Creating new accounts doesn't fix everything,
so reformat. Good thing you have backups!" What kind of OS does this to
people?? Never had that problem with XP; never had it on my Macs since I
started using them in 1993.

Thanks for your help in any case. I didn't like the answer but I knew it was
likely coming again, even with all my precautions. Now I can troubleshoot
these problem better.

"Jeff Smith [MSFT]" wrote:

> I'm sorry to hear that. This kind of corruption (as you probably realize)
> can be fairly serious. It might be caused if your computer is shut off
> forcibly (like in a power outage); or if your hard drive is silently
> corrupting random data (happens more than people realize).
>
> If the errors seem to be limited to c:\users\... , you don't have to
> reinstall the whole OS. Just add a new user account and delete the old one
> (transferring all your files first).
>
>
>
> "joeUser" wrote:
>
> > My system has many errors, according to Event Viewer. Looks like my accounts
> > have gotten corrupted again. Example (one of many):
> > {Registry Hive Recovered} Registry hive (file):
> > '\??\C:\Users\Isaac\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\UsrClass.dat' was
> > corrupted and it has been recovered. Some data might have been lost.
> >
> > Sigh. This is the second time I'll have to restore my drive since buying
> > this mess. Vista is _so_ frustrating!!!!! I user commercial virus protection,
> > Windows Defender, a good firewall, etc. Sheesh!!!!!

"joeUser" wrote:

> I can't get Parental Controls working in Vista. "Parental Controls" is "On"
> for every account on my machine, but nothing is blocked. I get no errors.
> Rebooting doesn't work. Manually adding sites to the "banned" list doesn't
> work.
>
> Thanks for your time. I have fought the idenical pays. Finaly figured out that it doesn't work with the browser I was using, it works perfectly with internet explorer however, I have a hard time with their browser, it works sporadically. Hope this will help.