locking XP from the little brats

I

Ike

I help an elemantry school K-5 with the computer lab they have which has 32
XP Home computers that are part of workgroup.

They do not have enough money for full time administrator or administrative
software or even central domain administration. so I have to work with
whatever free time I have to help.

some kid(s) keep rotating the screen, change the wallpaper, install
programs, and change settings.

I added a guest account, the onlyway they can login is thrue the guest
account, administrator accounts are locked with password changed frequently.

I disabled right click. locked the control panel, and no display settings.
the little creeps still managed to get around it.

my question is does anyone know how could they do that.

second question is there anyway I can prevent them from changing anything on
the computer or reset any changes after logging off.

Thanks
Ike
 
J

JS

It would seem that this tool should be a good test for the K-5 group, if
they should break through Doug's tool and munge the system again Doug needs
to do some updating.

JS :)
 
N

Nepatsfan

In
Ike said:
I help an elemantry school K-5 with the computer lab they
have which has 32
XP Home computers that are part of workgroup.

They do not have enough money for full time administrator or
administrative
software or even central domain administration. so I have to
work with
whatever free time I have to help.

some kid(s) keep rotating the screen, change the wallpaper,
install
programs, and change settings.

I added a guest account, the onlyway they can login is thrue
the guest
account, administrator accounts are locked with password
changed frequently.

I disabled right click. locked the control panel, and no
display settings.
the little creeps still managed to get around it.

my question is does anyone know how could they do that.

second question is there anyway I can prevent them from
changing anything on
the computer or reset any changes after logging off.

Thanks
Ike
Click to expand...

First off, whoever made the decision to order computers with XP
Home Edition didn't do you any favors. They may have saved the
school some money but in the end they've severely limited what
can be done in terms of security.

As for how the "little creeps" are making changes, two things
come to mind. First, have you password protected the built-in
Administrator account? In XP Home Edition, that account is only
available if you boot into Safe Mode. Second, is the BIOS
password protected? If they can enter the BIOS setup program
it's possible they've configured the computers to boot from a
CD and using any one of a number of programs are changing
administrative passwords.

You might want to consider using this program available from
Microsoft.

Windows SteadyState
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/sharedaccess/default.mspx

Good luck

Nepatsfan
 
T

The Poster Formerly Known as Nina DiBoy

Ike said:
I help an elemantry school K-5 with the computer lab they have which has 32
XP Home computers that are part of workgroup.

They do not have enough money for full time administrator or administrative
software or even central domain administration. so I have to work with
whatever free time I have to help.

some kid(s) keep rotating the screen, change the wallpaper, install
programs, and change settings.

I added a guest account, the onlyway they can login is thrue the guest
account, administrator accounts are locked with password changed frequently.

I disabled right click. locked the control panel, and no display settings.
the little creeps still managed to get around it.

my question is does anyone know how could they do that.

second question is there anyway I can prevent them from changing anything on
the computer or reset any changes after logging off.

Thanks
Ike
Click to expand...

Look at the shared computer toolkit from MS:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/sharedaccess/default.mspx

--
Priceless quotes in m.p.w.vista.general group:
http://protectfreedom.tripod.com/kick.html

"Only religious fanatics and totalitarian states equate morality with
legality."
- Linus Torvalds
 
I

Ike

Thanks, that is a great solution.

Ike


JS said:
It would seem that this tool should be a good test for the K-5 group, if
they should break through Doug's tool and munge the system again Doug
needs to do some updating.

JS :)
Click to expand...
 
I

Ike

Thanks Nepatsfan.
the built-in admin is password protected and BIOS has a password.
Thank you for telling me about the steady state. looking at the features
makes it sound like a useful program.

Ike
 
N

Nepatsfan

You're welcome.

Nepatsfan

In
Ike said:
Thanks Nepatsfan.
the built-in admin is password protected and BIOS has a
password.
Thank you for telling me about the steady state. looking at
the features
makes it sound like a useful program.

Ike
Click to expand...
 
T

The poster formerly known as Nina DiBoy

Ike said:
I am sorry. I thought you signed your nameon the bottom after the quote.
Click to expand...

Like I said, calling me linus is a big compliment, please don't
apologize. :)

That's who's quote is in my sig line, the father of linux.

--
Priceless quotes in m.p.w.vista.general group:
http://protectfreedom.tripod.com/kick.html

"Only religious fanatics and totalitarian states equate morality with
legality."
- Linus Torvalds
 
D

Doug Knox - [MS-MVP]

Sadly there are any number of ways around some of the restrictions.

1) Rotate the display. Keyboart hot-key shortcut that is actually tied to
the driver/systray applet for the video adapter.
2) Change wallpaper. Even if Display Properties are disabled, and they
can't edit the Registry, here comes Internet Explorer to the rescue with its
"set as background" option when right clicking on a graphic. This one in
particular completely ignores any group policy restrictions.

--
Doug Knox, MS-MVP Windows Media Center\Windows Powered Smart
Display\Security
Win 95/98/Me/XP Tweaks and Fixes
http://www.dougknox.com
 

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