techie problem with windows guest restrictions

[Harkoliar]

Okay here is what happened, i being a nice guy lent my laptop to a mate of mine several times. thinking a antivirus and anti-spyware would be sufficient. Oh how I was wrong with that assumption. My friend was abit of an idiot who doesnt know anything with computers and was able to bring spyware and virus to my lappy. Anyway after a 1 day reinstallation with updates and everything, i wont mind lending him the laptop provided I can configure my windows to ensure that he CANT install anything and can only run programs installed under administrator settings, and just surf the web. Would that be possible?

I tried setting up a guest account with limited access however using that account, I am still able to install things to my windows using the guest account. I need techie advise for him not to be able to install anything. Suggestions?

[Harkoliar]

actually i have found a awesome free software by microsoft to fit this requirements
"Windows SteadyState". Its cool, you can do so many things with this software that would restrict things especially when kids use the computer
link:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/pro...s/default.mspx

[Bungleau]

That looks pretty cool, Harks... I may have to add that on our home machine in a bit. Glad you found a solution... I was going to suggest a deeper look at your user and security configuration, because I *think* you can tighten things down in there quite a bit.

[Unglaublich Verwustung]

Found a couple of reviews for you, with relevant warnings:

"The first obvious hassle is that the My Documents folder should be moved from the C disk. In fact, any folder where you want to store files permanently can't be on the C disk. To techies like Gibson and his Security Now companion, Leo Laporte, this is no big deal. The obvious solution involves making a new hard disk partition dedicated to storing data files. For non-techie computer users however, making a new partition is dangerous and difficult. Another option is to save files to a computer or storage device elsewhere on the network.

If either of these is too much for you, consider a USB flash drive. Laptop users in particular are well-served by storing their data files on a USB flash drive, one that can stay on their person at all times.

The second obvious hassle is software updates. Software installed on the C disk constantly needs to be upgraded both to new versions and releases as well as applying bug fixes. Anti-malware software is likely to have daily updates. Microsoft has a partial solution for this, but my initial impression is that it's all but useless. Every now and then SteadyState will need to be disabled so that necessary changes can be made to the installed software."

I haven't checked this in detail but will do so and can update you after that.

Other than that SteadyState is a great thing.

[Harkoliar]

actually i have done alittle test myself with the software. updating software needs to be done with administrator access. that shouldnt be a problem. also the fact that administrator installations affect guest users (seperate login) so whatever updates that are needed can be done by the administrator.

and the best thing is that, kids or friends no matter how they will muck it around, it does have a automatic reset once they log off which is a very nice feature; although saving games may be a problem. i havent tested it that fully

I must admit, this is one of the best free tools ive come accross that is simple and userfriendly (sort of). Just tick the boxes you need access per login and overall.

now my friend cant install anything anymore, he can just surf and download. poor guy heh. my computer became like fort knox.