LiteStep does make a good kidsafe or childproff shell for XP Home

[(ProteanThread)]

For Windows 9x/ME/XP Home (since NT/2K/XP Pro already have group
policies in place)

I found out by playing around with LiteStep and with the likes of Mark
Overmar's ChildProof, LiteStep does make a good kidsafe shell for
Windows, in fact, its more secure than most (even the $$$ ones); Since
I've been playing around with some of the features, such as disabling
the menubar, desktop icons, even windows hot keys and modifying the
popup main menu with custom applications, LiteStep can be made nearly as
secure and nearly as safe as any child proofing program out there.

It makes having to edit the registry for specific HKCU values less
likely too.

 

[Vanguard]

For Windows 9x/ME/XP Home (since NT/2K/XP Pro already have group
policies in place)

I found out by playing around with LiteStep and with the likes of Mark
Overmar's ChildProof, LiteStep does make a good kidsafe shell for
Windows, in fact, its more secure than most (even the $$$ ones);
Since I've been playing around with some of the features, such as
disabling the menubar, desktop icons, even windows hot keys and
modifying the popup main menu with custom applications, LiteStep can
be made nearly as secure and nearly as safe as any child proofing
program out there.

It makes having to edit the registry for specific HKCU values less
likely too.

To clarify, are you talking about
http://sourceforge.net/projects/litestep which is a replacement for the
standard Explorer desktop (and which hasn't released any files yet)?

Are you running that on an upstream host through which the kids computer
connects and to which they do NOT have physical access? Otherwise, all
they have to do is boot to a different OS and bypass all your software
protections, like install another instance of Windows in a different
partition or use a bootable CD.

 

[Harry Ohrn]

To clarify, are you talking about
http://sourceforge.net/projects/litestep which is a replacement for the
standard Explorer desktop (and which hasn't released any files yet)?

Are you running that on an upstream host through which the kids computer
connects and to which they do NOT have physical access? Otherwise, all
they have to do is boot to a different OS and bypass all your software
protections, like install another instance of Windows in a different
partition or use a bootable CD.

--

In all practicality I think you have to give consideration to both the age
and the expertise of the "child". How many 8 year olds could do a side by
side install of a second OS?

 

[(ProteanThread)]

To clarify, are you talking about
http://sourceforge.net/projects/litestep which is a replacement for the
standard Explorer desktop (and which hasn't released any files yet)?
Yes


Are you running that on an upstream host through which the kids computer
connects and to which they do NOT have physical access? Otherwise, all
they have to do is boot to a different OS and bypass all your software
protections, like install another instance of Windows in a different
partition or use a bootable CD.

Most kids won't have that knowledge.

 

[D.Currie]

Most kids won't have that knowledge.

Depends on what age you're calling a "kid." I know one 12-year old who built
his own computer from the ground up, and considering that kids are learning
about computers in pre-school, a lot of the kids know more than their
parents. If the parents can figure out how to install it, the kids can
figure out how to disable it.

If you're talking a household where the oldest kid is eight, yeah, it's
probably safe. But an older sibling could nullify the whole project.

 

[Vanguard]

Most kids won't have that knowledge.

If they can manage to do web searches and ask in newsgroups, yes, they
do. It depends on the school the kid goes to and if the parent allow
free reign of the computer without supervision. Since LiteStep is a
replacement desktop, trying to control it upstream would be difficult (I
didn't know that at the time and at the end of my post added the first
paragraph when trying to come up with a possibility of which "LiteStep"
the user might be talking about since no URL was provided).

I'm not quite sure why the OP is proselytizing software that has no
released files at http://sourceforge.net/projects/litestep. Maybe the
home page at http://www.lsdev.org/ might have some files available for
download except that the site has been unreachable to check.

To circumvent the kid from booting from other media, the parent will
need to go into the BIOS and do a couple things: (1) Change the boot
device order and which devices are included to ensure the kid cannot
boot from a CD, zip drive, floppy, etc.; and, (2) Set a password to
enter the BIOS (but not necessarily to boot the machine) to prevent the
kid from resetting the BIOS settings; and (3) Use security screws or
security locking devices to prevent entry inside the desktop to keep the
kid from removing the CMOS battery and/or shorting the reset jumper.

Presumably the adult is also giving the kid a limited account that
cannot install software and cannot edit the registry. Otherwise, the
kid will simply install a keylogger to monitor the passwords for the
adults' accounts with admin privileges and edit the registry to change
which desktop shell gets loaded
(HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon, Shell).

 

[Parley]

I will consider myself a productive parent if my child can accomplish
these tasks by the time she starts school.