If you have children who share your computer, or if
you’re setting up a computer for the kids’ use, take precautions
regarding the content and programs that they can access. Locally, this
might take the form of blocking access to certain programs (such as your
financial software), using ratings to control which games they can
play, and setting time limits on when the computer is used.
Note
In Windows 7, Microsoft no longer offers Internet-related parental
controls, such as allowing (or blocking) specific sites, blocking
certain types of content, and preventing file downloads, and it no
longer offers activity reporting. These are now handled through
third-party parental control service providers, which you must install
on your PC to enable them within the Windows 7 Parental Controls window.
As I wrote this, it wasn’t clear how Microsoft was planning to handle
these third-party providers.
All this sounds
daunting, but Windows 7’s parental controls make things a bit easier by
offering an easy-to-use interface that lets you set all the
aforementioned options and lots more. (You get parental controls in the
Home Basic, Home Premium, and Ultimate editions of Windows 7.)
Before you begin,
create a Standard User account for each child who uses the computer.
When that’s done, you get to parental controls by selecting Start,
typing parent,
and then pressing Enter. In the Parental Controls window, click the
user you want to work with to get to the User Controls window.
Activating Parental Controls
With the User Controls
window onscreen, click to activate the On, Enforce Current Settings
option. This enables the Time Limits, Games, and Allow and Block
Specific Programs links in the Windows Settings area, as shown in Figure 1.
The User Controls window gives you some links to use when setting up the controls for this user:
Time Limits—
Click this link to display the Time Restrictions page, which shows a
grid where each square represents an hour during the day for each day of
the week, as shown in Figure 2. Click the squares to block computer usage during the selected times.
Note
If the user is logged
on when a restricted time approaches, an icon appears in the
notification area to let that user know. If the user is still logged on
when the restricted time occurs, the user is immediately logged off and
cannot log back on until the restricted time has passed. Fortunately,
Windows 7 is kind enough to restore the user’s programs and documents
when he or she logs back on.
Games— Click
this link to display the Game Controls page. Here you can allow or
disallow all games, restrict games based on ratings and content, and
block or allow specific games. You see how this works in the next
section.
Allow and Block Specific Programs—
Click this link to display the Application Restrictions page, which
displays a list of the programs on your computer. Activate the User Can Only Use the Programs I Allow option, and then click the check boxes for the programs you want to allow the person to use.
