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Window Vista Parental Controls Are Awesome

Posted by Chris Leckness on May 26, 2008 – 4:22 pm
closeThis post was published 1 year 6 months 1 day ago.
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I posted a little slice of praise for these parental controls on my personal blog. In the 1st couple hours, I got a comment and two emails asking for more info. Wow, I didn’t realize there was that much interest in the subject. Anyhow, I decided to share this on Mobilitysite although it’s kind of off topic.

I have blocked internet use for my kids for a long time, but now it’s getting to the point where I need to let my 14 year old daughter get online to do some things. I am not going to allow her the run of the net like many have at that age, but I am going to unlock the information superhighway a little…

Anyhow, if you haven’t messed around with the Parental Controls in Vista, DO SO NOW. They are really nice.

This is nothing new, but today was the 1st time that I took the time to setup these controls and I am really in awe at the power. I used to own a license to an after market program that was quite costly and not as nice.  Read on for screenshots of the setup controls…

vistaparental_start
This is the parental control screen. Here you can admin several settings about the account control.

vistaparental_internet
Internet settings. Let me tell you, High blocks A LOT of things. I had to set it to medium.

vistaparental_programs
You can block installed games, including aftermarket games. If you let some games be accessible, you are presented with more options too…

vistaparental_games2
Select what games teh kids can play…

 vistaparental_programs
You can also block and/or allow certain executables too.

vistaparental_reportreminde
After you are all setup, you can set reminders to tell you to check in on the accounts. Here is what they look like.

vistaparental_report

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Chris Leckness (3560 Posts) - Website | Twitter | Facebook

Chris Leckness is the Owner/Administrator of Mobilitysite. He is a Microsoft MVP, Mobile Devices and a member of the exclusive focus group, Mobius. Chris runs a Mobilitysite, GotZune, and a few other smaller sites and blogs. His personal blog is chris.leckness.com.


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  • Fid
    I agree with Grey Hat. That's why I think hardware is always best for parental control/Internet filtering. I've been using the iBoss which is very difficult to bypass and way more customizable. And its very effective. Plus, there is nothing they can do on the pc to bypass it since it is all hardware based. Only way to bypass it is if they unplug it, but I keep it locked up and it sends me alerts if this ever happens anyways.
  • A Grey Hat
    Give me 30 seconds with your kids and I can teach them how to log on a system and change the settings. Give me 30 minutes and I can show them how to decypt a password from the SAM file in under 20 seconds with a rainbow table.ets Parental controls are worthless, if a child mearly asks hundreds of people will be willing to teach.

    Its a shame to have to explain this but, hell when I was 14 I learned what a botnet was. Kids can handle a lot more then we give them credit for

    -A Grey Hat Hacker
  • xchicagoan5
    As a user of Windows Vista since its initial release, one of the untouted features is the Parental Controls. I have three kids who use the computer at random times. My son, an avid gamer, has downloaded various items in the past that showed up at awkward times. One of the bigs ones is the Google toolbar. It is not opt-in but opt out. With the parental controls, I can control his time to access the PC, applications and sites. He has to ask me download or install something and I have to put in my password. Without it, he is stuck! I haven't had trouble with sites, but the time controls have been super handy during the school year to insure he gets his studies completed before he jumps on the PC. I also installed Vista Ultimate for a friend who has kids where porn sites are a problem. It has been tremendously helpful to limiting content for his grandkids.
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