Block Or Allow Programs Your Child Uses With Parental Controls
This is another installment in using the Parental Controls feature in Vista. I figured this week I would cover these controls and other utilities we can use to help protect the kids. At the end of this week or beginning of next I will put together everything and do one comprehensive article that covers everything. As this series continues I invite you to let us know of other tricks and or software you use for this.
So far we have covered Web Filtering and Time allowed on the PC. Again open Control Panel and click on Set up parental controls for any user.
You will then be greeted with the screen to select the user you want to control.
After selecting the account again you will want to verify Parental Controls are activated. This time under Window Settings we want to click on “Allow and block specific programs”.
Next just click on the selection for you to allow what programs to be used.
Now wait a bit while Vista scans and comes up with a list of programs. When the list is generated you can scroll through and check and block what you do or don’t want your child using. Checking the program means the child CAN use it. Leaving it blank means they CAN NOT use it.
When you are done just click on OK twice to get back to the desktop. Now it is set! I really like how simple Parental Controls are to set up. Now, when your child is logged into their profile if they try to access an off limits program they will receive this pop up message.
Disclaimer: Many of our articles require making changes to your system. While we fully test and stand by our advice, there is still the potential for problems when making any configuration changes. Please be careful.
One problem I ran into was finding all the helper "sub-programs" required for a main program to run. Allowing the main .exe file to run often wasn't enough to allow the program to function. Another problem was tracking down all the programs that run at startup, otherwise the child gets a mysterious series of messages every time they log on.
Parental controls are a good idea, but the current iteration in Vista isn't quite as easy as it could be. Microsoft ought to allow sub programs to run if they are launched by an allowed program. This would make it easier to implement